Do Not Go Gentle
by Persephone287
Summary: <html><head></head>AU - Damon and Stefan have a secret. One that has haunted both of them for years and one that neither has ever spoken of. Now their past has come back to haunt them and no one in the Salvatore house is safe. This is a sequel to my story Heart of Darkness so you might want to check that one out first. **Rated M for adult content and language**</html>
1. Chapter 1

**The TVD Season 6 premier was so amazing! I can't wait for more!**

**Here's the first chapter of Do Not Go Gentle – I'm going to jump perspectives a bit in this story so just know that a BOLD first letter of a paragraph indicates a perspective switch. Honestly, this is a bit of a teaser chapter. Hope you all like it and come back for more! **

** Oh…. ***RATED M for smutty mature content*****

** xoxo**

**Prologue:**

…. "Hello, brother" Damon was standing over him, smirk and all. His brain felt like it was covered in cobwebs and he was pretty sure he was in a coffin. _How long have I been out? _He wondered to himself.

"Damon?" Stefan croaked.

"Good to know you have your memory"

Stefan went to sit up but Damon put a hand on his chest.

"Hang on. I need to explain something but it's got to be the abridged version for now. You're going to see someone who looks like someone we used to know but it's not her. Ok?"

"Ok…." He replied, becoming more confused by the minute.

Damon took his hand off his chest and he sat up slowly. His forest green eyes swept over the room and took in the faces. Caroline was grinning broadly at him with Klaus by her side. A girl who looked very much like Sheila Bennett smiled timidly at him and next to her was….

"Katherine?" his voice was barely a whisper. He turned back to his brother, not even attempting to hide the shock on his face.

"This is who I was talking about" Damon nodded to the girl and she took a step forward.

"Hi, I'm Elena" she gave him an awkward little wave.

"Uh, hi" he replied, his astonished eyes flicking back and forth between the girl and his brother.

"I know. The same thing happened to me the first time I saw her but I swear to you, that is not Katherine Pierce. This is Elena Gilbert. John and Isobel's daughter" Damon told him.

"I think you have a lot of explaining to do" The cobwebs were starting to shake loose and his mind was suddenly filled with a thousand questions.

"Understatement of the century" Damon offered his hand to his brother and Stefan grasped it, allowing Damon to help him from the coffin.

**Chapter 1**

_A low, unnatural fog swirled around Bonnie's feet and she heard a crow caw in the distance. She let out an exasperated sigh. _

_"Stop it, Damon" she called out into the nothingness. _

_Everywhere she turned was covered in the fog and she couldn't figure out where she was. It was disconcerting and she couldn't understand why he would be playing with the silly fog after all this time. _

_He appeared a few feet in front of her and the fog dissipated around him as he ambled toward her with his usual over-confident swagger. A second later he was only inches away from her, vampire face at the forefront, and an evil grin plastered across his face. _

_"I can't stop being what I am, witch" he sneered at her._

_Bonnie leaned back, stunned. This wasn't right. Something about this wasn't right. He called her Witchy all the time but 'witch' sounded like an insult. The fog was still obscuring the space around them and she shivered as she felt it creep over her skin. _

_"Where are we?" she demanded. _

_"Where you were always going to end up" he replied ominously. _

_Abruptly the fog disappeared and she realized they were standing in the graveyard behind her house. Before she could say anything, he was attacking her neck, tearing into her skin with his deadly sharp teeth. She screamed in pain but it only fueled him on and she felt herself starting to get weak. Death was just around the corner and the searing pain in her neck was starting to fade. Her vision started to go black….._

**B**onnie sat bolt upright and barely stifled a scream. A quick glance at the clock told her it was only 4am. It was the third dream this week where one of her vampire friends had tried to kill her and she begrudgingly admitted to herself that she had to tell Damon. Things had been going so well and she hadn't wanted to rock the boat. She'd tried a sleeping potion, a dream spell, and a charm to ward off evil magic. Nothing had worked. He was going to be mad that she'd waited to tell him but Stefan had only been awake for two weeks and Elena was still adjusting to vampirism. Knowing that she would never get back to sleep now, she crawled out of the warm bed and wrapped her favorite quilt around her. Fall was setting in and the walk to the mansion was starting to get longer with the cold bite in the air. It made her wish that witches actually rode brooms. She considered making breakfast in her own kitchen but, no matter how much work she did to it, the space had nothing on the big kitchen. It didn't hurt that it was twice the size of hers and Damon had every kitchen gadget under the sun. In the end, she pulled warm boots over jeans and a scarf over her sweater then set out through the trees. The morning was silent and dark and Bonnie sensed snow in the air. Damon had explained the transfer of power thing as best he could to her but she'd had to do her own research. What she'd discovered sent her mind reeling. As the youngest living Bennett witch, when her Grams died she had passed seemingly limitless generations of Bennett magic over to Bonnie. She'd never felt so connected to the world and people around her. With the lightest touch, she could bring a flower to bloom. A mere thought from her and the wind howled through the trees. The snap of her fingers brought a flame to life.

_Too bad I can't figure out how to warm up for a ten minute walk._ She thought as the mansion appeared a short distance away.

The kitchen was blessedly warm when she walked through the back door and found Damon already making scrambled eggs with cheese. Elena's favorite.

"Morning" he said distractedly as he cracked an egg.

"Morning" she replied "you're up early."

"So are you"

"I had a weird dream" she confessed, grabbing flour and a measuring cup.

"Yeah? What about?" he asked

"Waffles?" he interjected quickly.

She nodded and he reached into a cupboard to hand her the waffle iron. She accepted the iron from his outstretched hand and took a deep breath.

"You" she said uncomfortably and turned to collect the rest of the waffle ingredients.

Damon's eyes went wide "If you're going to tell me you had a sex dream about me, I don't want to know."

"No! You killed me."

"Oh. Sorry about that" he said, sounding blasé.

"You were using the fog and the crow" she said seriously, mixing the batter.

"How juvenile" he replied mockingly and cracked another egg.

She glared at him, frustrated at his lack of concern.

"It's the third dream I've had like this"

That caught his attention and he stopped mid whisk. Turning the burner heat to low, he leaned against the counter and stared at the back of Bonnie's head. She could feel him watching her but she refused to turn away from the waffle iron.

"And you're just now telling me about it? Is it me that kills you every time?" he asked, sounding annoyed.

"Yes, I thought I could handle it by myself and no, it's not you every time."

"That was stupid of you. Who else?"

"I didn't want to bother you. You have a lot going on" she said, deliberately avoiding his question.

"That's so sweet of you" his voice dripped sarcasm.

"So who else kills you in the dreams?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter" she said dismissively.

"It does matter. Tell me" the sarcasm was gone and he was giving her that domineering stare. Though she'd never been truly afraid of him, that look had intimidated her when she was a little girl and the effect had never worn off.

"Stefan and Caroline" she told him meekly.

**"S**tefan and Caroline, what?" Stefan asked.

Damon looked up to see his brother standing in the archway. It had been two weeks since Stefan had woken up from his extremely long nap. It had been a strange and happy reunion, though it had taken him a few days to come around to Elena. At first he could barely look at her. As if he was afraid that any moment she would reveal herself as Katherine in disguise and kill them all. Elena had tried so hard to make conversation with him, asking him about books and inviting him to eat with them, but he'd treated her like a ghost with half replies and curt nods. It had taken Caroline the better part of a day to convince him to just sit with Elena for a few hours. Damon had paced like an agitated panther outside the library as Caroline pleaded with Stefan. He needed his girl and his brother to get along and if Caroline couldn't convince Stefan, no one could.

_She's the girl that Damon loves. Doesn't she at least deserve a chance? _

That had done it. If Stefan had one weak spot, it was his guilty conscience. He'd agreed to sit in the library and talk to Elena the next day. As it happened, they had a lot in common. They'd spent hours bonding over their love of classic books and bad oldies rock music. By the time they came out of the library, they were practically BFF's. After that, Stefan started joining them for dinner every night and he'd told Damon again and again how great it was to see him so happy. He'd even offered to help Elena control her vampire urges. Damon was good at a lot of things but control was not one of them and he'd encouraged Elena to take his brother up on the offer. It seemed to be going well so far. He and Stefan had taken her into town with them a few days ago and she'd only vamped once. She'd tamped it down in a matter of seconds and he'd felt a strange sense of pride surge through him. If anyone had the right temperament for vampirism, it was his girl.

"Bonnie is dreaming that we kill her" he told Stefan.

Stefan's brow furrowed as he snatched an apple from the bowl on the counter and tossed it in the air.

"Is that something to be worried about?" he asked as he caught the apple and crunched into it.

"I don't know" Bonnie replied "but it's starting to get strange. First it was Stefan with no humanity, then Caroline with no humanity. Then Damon with the fog and the crow."

"Sounds like someone's playing with your head" Klaus said as he wandered in and sat down at the kitchen island.

"What do you mean?" Bonnie asked and pulled a perfectly golden brown waffle from the iron.

"Those sound like dreams someone put in your head."

"What makes you think that?" Stefan chimed in.

Damon continued to cook but he listened intently, both to the conversation and for any sound of Elena stirring in his room. He'd intended to bring her breakfast in bed and he was hoping she would still be asleep by the time he was done. Or at least still in his bed.

"Why would you dream about the people closest to you harming you?" he asked Bonnie "and you know full well Damon hasn't used his vampire tricks in ages. It doesn't make sense. Not to mention that you're a very powerful witch. If you wanted to stop a normal nightmare, it would be as easy as mixing a potion. These are meant to frighten you." Klaus explained.

"Is there anything we can do about it?" Damon asked.

"Figure out who's causing them and stop them" his friend told them.

"Would you do a little digging for us?"

"Of course" Klaus replied with his sly grin "you know how I love a good mystery."

"In the meantime, maybe you need to break into Grams' brandy stash at night, Witchy" he suggested to Bonnie and forked a waffle onto the plate he was making for Elena.

"Gee, thanks" she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Hey, just trying to help" he said and set Elena's breakfast on a tray.

"Wow breakfast in bed. You really have been tamed" Klaus teased.

"Maybe but which of us do you suppose has the better chance of getting laid this morning, hmmm?" Damon picked up the tray with a grin and started toward his bedroom.

"Touché" Klaus replied with a laugh.

**B**liss. That was the only word for the last two weeks. Elena felt like she was in some kind of strange fairy tale. She was wildly in love with an absurdly handsome man, who loved her back with equal measure, and they lived in his beautiful mansion. Also, they were vampires. She was still getting used to the fact that she was no longer human. The cravings for human blood were still strong but it was getting easier every day. Caroline was right, Stefan was a good teacher.

They'd been in line at the grocery store when the clerk sliced his finger on a piece of paper. The smell of his blood hit her suddenly and she'd felt her face start to change. She'd never been exposed to fresh blood and wanted to kill him so badly. Her fangs dropped down involuntarily the hunger burned through her like wildfire. Damon had immediately grabbed her around the waist. To anyone else he would have looked like an affectionate boyfriend but he was gripping her so tightly, it was almost painful.

_"Just breathe, clear your head" _Stefan had whispered behind her, low enough that only the three of them would hear. _"You don't really want to kill him. He's an innocent kid with a paper-cut" _

Nodding, she pulled air into her lungs as slowly as she could and exhaled even slower. _He's just an innocent kid _she repeated Stefan's words over and over in her head. Elena felt the veins disappear and her teeth returned to normal. The trick worked well for her. As long as she reminded herself that they were people, not walking talking meals, she could keep the urge to kill in check. At first she'd felt ashamed that she couldn't stop herself from wanting the blood, but Stefan had explained that the cravings would always be there. She just had to learn to deal with them. _"Trust me denying the thirst is a lot easier than living with the guilt of taking a life" _he'd told her seriously.

"Good morning, gorgeous" Damon was a welcome disruption from her thoughts as he walked through the door with a tray of breakfast balanced on one hand.

Her heart melted "Breakfast in bed?"

Elena could feel the stupid grin on her face but she didn't care. He was the most amazing man in the world and he was hers. Sitting up and shoving a few pillows behind her back, she continued to stare at him in awe as he set the tray across her lap.

"You're so sweet" she told him.

He gave her a quick kiss on the lips "Not really. This is just a ploy to get you naked."

"Lucky you, I'm already naked" she said and dropped the sheet she'd wrapped around her chest.

Damon's gaze turned molten "Eat fast."

He lay down next to her and propped himself up on his elbow. Reaching out with his other hand, he started idly twirling a lock of her chocolate brown hair around his finger before lightly tracing her collarbone, then moving down to valley of her cleavage. A little shiver of longing went down her spine.

"I'm trying to eat here, you know" she told him with mock annoyance.

"Hmmm" he murmured and dropped his hand, only to stare heatedly at her.

She managed to get a few more bites in before he knocked the tray on the floor and tore the sheets off her body.

"There. Now you're done eating" he said and went to drag her to him.

With a giggle she squirmed away and leapt from the bed with her vampire speed. She made it to the other side of the bed before crashing into the brick wall of his chest.

"Going somewhere?" he asked, smirking down at her.

Instead of answering she faked left then headed right as fast as she could. He was faster. Elena was almost to the bathroom when she felt Damon's arm around her middle. Suddenly she was looking down at the floor over his shoulder.

"Put me down!" she cried and made a half-hearted attempt to wriggle away.

"Uh-uh. You want to play chase, you better be up for what happens when I catch you" he told her and smacked her bottom playfully.

Heat pooled in her stomach as he carried her into the bathroom. She heard him turn on the shower and a multitude of erotic images flashed through her mind. Licking her lips, she opened her mouth to say something sassy. The words turned to a scream as he shoved her under the freezing cold spray.

"Damon!" she screeched and gasped as icy cold water splashed down on her head.

Damon made no attempt to hide his amusement, his blue eyes sparkled and a rare genuine smile was spread across his face as he snickered at her. He was still laughing when she grabbed his arm and yanked him into the shower with her. Shock flashed across his face for a second before the smile returned and he swiped the water from his face.

"Little minx" he accused as he reached around her to adjust the water temperature.

His hand dropped to the small of her back and he pulled her naked form against his fully clothed one. The blue abyss of his eyes had turned from frisky to passionate as they roamed over her face and body. She let out a shaky breath and stared at him in wonder. One look, one touch from him, and her entire being came alive. Desire flowed through her and she let her fingers trail down his chest to the hem of the now soaked black t-shirt that was clinging to his torso.

"You're all wet" she commented, tugging the shirt over his head and throwing it over the shower wall.

Then his hand was between her legs, gently parting her thighs, and slipping a finger inside her.

"So are you" he said, his voice low.

"Mmmm" was the only reply she could manage.

The movement of his hand was slow, tortuous, and she leaned into him with a sigh. He added a second finger and Elena's breath hitched as she grabbed at his shoulders. The tender caresses grew more demanding as he stroked his fingers in and out of her. His thumb found the tiny bundle of nerves at her center and her mind went blank except for the dizzying pleasure.

"Gonna come for me, 'Lena?" he whispered huskily in her ear.

Unintelligible cries and whimpers poured from her mouth as the orgasm rippled languidly through her body. Damon caught her under her backside just before her knees buckled and he lifted her off her feet. Wrapping her legs securely around his waist, she attacked his lips with her own. With a groan he took a step forward and pressed her back into the cool tile of the shower wall. Returning her kiss with equal fervor, he ran his hands over every inch of her slick skin. Everywhere he touched made her half crazed with need. Her quick fingers tore at the snap on his jeans and helped him push the wet fabric over his hips. _Yes _she thought triumphantly when he was finally naked against her.

**D**amon never tired of this; touching her, being close to her, inside her. They were insatiable and if it weren't for the four other people in the house, he would have gladly kept her in his bed for the next decade or so. It was a good thing neither of them needed to breathe or they would have suffocated on kisses days ago. He stood there with Elena's legs draped around him, steam from the hot water rising around their bodies, and their mouths tangled together for several long minutes before he dragged his head back to look at her. Grabbing her hips, he lifted her up and brought her back down on his length, sliding into her in one swift movement. He watched rapt, as her lashes fluttered and her lips parted slightly. There was nothing sexier than Elena's face when he drove himself inside her. Her hips tilted forward, inviting him to go deeper, harder. He tried at first to set a leisurely pace but she wasn't having it, she bucked against him, pulling him in to the hilt. Hanging onto the last shreds of his control, he hooked his arms under her ass and pressed as deep inside her as he could get. She groaned in response and wiggled her hips.

"God you feel so fucking good" he growled.

Giving up on slow and steady, he started thrusting into her with abandon. She went wild around him, calling his name, her nails clawing at his shoulders, and her hips meeting his every movement.

"Damon…" she cried breathlessly.

Purple veins danced under her skin and her fangs were peeking out from beneath her lip. Slowing his thrusts, he let his fangs drop. They gazed at one another, as they always did in the moment before they shared blood, taking a moment to appreciate the beauty of their inner demons. Damon had always considered himself a monster, a freak of nature, something to be feared. Every day that she'd been here, Elena had showed him in a million different ways that even monsters could be beautiful.

"You first" she insisted and he didn't argue. He pulled his lips back and buried his razor sharp teeth in the soft flesh of her chest, drinking deeply.

"Yessss" she hissed and twisted her fingers in his inky black hair.

Seconds later he felt her teeth sink into his shoulder and she took a long pull from the wound. The world around them disappeared and their bodies hummed with preternatural energy. Bright white light exploded behind his eyes and he picked up his pace again, driving them both closer and closer to oblivion. Never in his life had anything been this intense, it felt like they were one person instead of two as their bodies crashed together and they drank greedily from one another. It was like this every time; it left their minds numb, their bodies shaking, and an odd sense of being deeply connected.

Elena pulled away from his shoulder just as her core clamped down around him. Dragging his mouth away from her chest, he kissed her furiously and pounded into her so hard he heard the tile behind her crack. She didn't seem to mind, her legs were pulling him closer and she was moaning against his lips. Neither had retracted their fangs and he nicked her lower lip on his incisor, licking at the drops of blood that appeared as quickly as they disappeared. She responded by pricking his tongue on her own sharp teeth and sucking gently at the wound. Blood mixed in their mouths as their tongues swirled together, sending them both flying over the edge.

"Elena!" he roared as he pulled away from their kiss and came violently inside her.

She was right there with him, screaming his name and holding on to him for dear life as her body trembled and shuddered around him. The water started to turn cold as they stood there coming down from their high so he carried them back to the bed and collapsed backwards with her sprawled across her chest. They said nothing for a long time, just holding on to one another, reveling in the sensation of their bodies and minds being perfectly in sync. Damon made a mental note to convince Elena to ask Bonnie about the connection they both felt and could not explain. There was no comparison he could make to the way sharing blood with Elena felt, especially at the height of their pleasure. He'd shared blood before and no other partner he'd been with came close to what he'd just experienced. There was a power between them and it seemed to grow stronger every day they were together. As much as he loved it and didn't want it to end, he also wanted an explanation.

"Is it always going to be like that?" she asked, breaking the comfortable silence.

"God, I hope so" he replied.

"Me too" she said earnestly "I keep waiting for it to wear off or something but it just keeps getting better."

"Yeah it does" he said and grinned down at her "Wanna go again?"

She lifted her head to look at him with raised eyebrows "You can't be serious."

"Doubting my stamina, Elena?" he asked and rolled them so he was on top of her, the evidence of his seriousness pressed against her thigh.

"Never" she said and leaned up to peck him on the lips "but Bonnie and I promised to go shopping with Caroline today and I still have to get ready"

He rolled away with a groan "Are you crazy? You'll be gone for days."

"It can't be that bad" but she suddenly looked concerned.

"I'd rather drink squirrel blood than go shopping with Caroline. Trust me, you're going to wish you'd stayed in bed with me" he assured her.

With a sigh she jumped off the bed and headed for her dresser. A satisfied smirk played across his lips as he admired the curve of her back and the sway of her hips while she walked around the room that had become 'theirs' instead of 'his'.

"You're probably right but I already promised" she said as she pulled a shirt over her head.

Damon was about to make a snarky retort when the horrible screeching sound pierced his ears. Sitting up on the side of the bed, he let out an aggravated shout and gripped the sides of his head. Elena was next to him a second later, her hand on his shoulder and her eyes full of concern.

"Bonnie" he gritted out "Go check on Bonnie."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than an ear splitting scream came from downstairs. Elena's eyes darted between him and the door, apparently torn between staying with him and investigating the scream.

"I'm fine. Go!" he insisted.

**L**eaving him in pain went against everything inside her but whoever was screaming sounded completely terrified. Elena raced down the stairs to the living room where the awful sound had come from. She found Bonnie on the floor with her eyes rolled back in her head and in the midst of what looked like a seizure. Her body jerked and twitched violently as she cried out in agony. She dropped to her knees next to her friend and grabbed her shoulders.

"Bonnie! Bonnie can you hear me?" Elena tried desperately to wake her but Bonnie continued to convulse and shriek. She knelt behind her and pulled her friend's thrashing head into her lap.

"It's ok, I'm here. You're going to be ok. Please, please wake up" she whispered urgently and stroked Bonnie's hair.

Damon flew into the room with Caroline not far behind.

"Oh my God" Caroline said as her hands flew to her mouth.

"What the hell is happening?" he said frantically.

"I don't know. She won't wake up" Elena looked up at them helplessly.

Damon crouched down and took Bonnie's hand in his own. Instantly her eyes fluttered shut and her body stilled.

"What did you do?" Caroline asked.

"Nothing" he said, sounding bewildered.

He dropped her hand and a moment later Bonnie sat up, her eyes flying open with a sharp gasp.

"Bonnie? Are you ok?" Elena asked cautiously.

Bonnie turned to look at her, tears filling her wide green eyes.

"Blood, there was blood everywhere. And the bodies…Oh god there were so many bodies."


	2. Chapter 2

**OMG my poor little Delena heart after 6X02! Stay strong DE'rs – we know our OTP is endgame! But the Bamon friendship is fueling the muse for this story so that's yay! **

**Hope you all like chapter 2 – it took me a while to get this one fleshed out and on 'paper' (so to speak). I would love, love, love to know what you all think so please review if you have the chance. **

**xoxo**

**Chapter 2**

Elena held Bonnie's elbow and helped her to her feet. Making their way slowly to the couch, Elena watched her friend like a hawk for any sign of distress. Seeing Bonnie like this, her skin sallow and her eyes weary, was beyond strange to Elena. The witch was always the calm and collected peacekeeper of the house. When Bonnie was safely seated she took the spot next to her and put her arm around her shoulder. Fear and confusion were written all over her friend's face, setting Elena's nerves on edge. It was hard to imagine anything scary enough to frighten a witch who had grown up with vampires and could set fires with her mind. Damon came to sit on the arm of the sofa and pushed a tumbler of bourbon into Bonnie's shaking hands.

"You gonna tell us what that was all about Witchy?" he said.

Bonnie took a tiny sip from the glass and winced at the kick from the strong drink.

"I don't know. It felt so real, like I was really there."

"You were really where?" Damon prodded.

"I'm not sure. It was a little brick building and it was pretty run down. Like an old chapel, maybe? It was in the woods at night and everything was so quiet and peaceful. Except I knew something was wrong. Something bad was in there but I couldn't stop myself from going inside. At first it just looked like an abandoned altar. There was a little table with candles lit at the front and there were big logs in a circle instead of pews. It was dark and hard to see but the floor was this strange inky black with lumps all over the place. When I looked closer to see what it was…I…it…." Her voice cracked as she trailed off.

Elena hugged her tightly as tears returned to her eyes. Bonnie leaned into the embrace and continued.

"It was like something out of a horror movie only a thousand times worse. There were pieces of bodies _everywhere_. From what I could tell, they were all women and something had ripped them to shreds. Limbs were scattered all over the place. One woman's head was sitting on a log with the eyes open and you could literally see the terror on her face. There were so many piles of body parts I couldn't tell how many people there had been, but it seemed like dozens. When I tried to take a step forward I felt something sticky on my shoes and when I looked down I realized the floor wasn't black. It was covered in blood. It was spattered all over the walls and the ceiling, too. The whole room was soaked in the blood of these women. I freaked out when some of it dripped in my hair. It was awful, I felt sick to my stomach and all I wanted to do was run away but it was like I was stuck there. I couldn't move or close my eyes. I screamed and screamed but no one came. I thought I would be trapped there forever. I thought whatever had killed them was coming for me. Then something cold grabbed my hand and I woke up on the floor."

"I think the cold thing was me" Damon told her quietly.

"You?" Bonnie asked.

"Yep, when I touched your hand you stopped thrashing around."

"That's interesting" she said matter-of-factly.

"Why is that interesting?" Elena asked.

"I don't know. It just is. I need Grams' grimoire" Bonnie said and abruptly jumped to her feet, making a beeline for the back door before anyone could stop her.

Elena stared dumbfounded at the spot where Bonnie had been before looking up at Damon. He was trying to be subtle about it but Elena could see that the whole ordeal had disturbed Damon. His face had turned cold and expressionless the way it did when he was trying not to feel anything. She reached for his hand but he shoved away from her to pour himself a drink. Stefan was already there gulping down a nearly full glass of bourbon. Damon mirrored the action and poured another one for them both. Elena raised her eyebrows at Caroline who only shook her head and appeared equally confused.

"Is there something you boys would like to share with us?" Caroline said sweetly.

"Like what, Blondie?" Damon asked with a forced smile and Elena's least favorite snarky tone.

"How about why you both look like you saw a ghost and why you're chugging the good bourbon" Caroline replied, matching his tone.

"It's been a long day" Stefan replied simply.

Elena glanced at the clock.

"It's not even noon" she said skeptically.

"Bonnie just had a seizure on the living room. If that doesn't justify day drinking, I don't know what does" Damon said before taking down another glass.

"Maybe if you were the one having the seizure" Caroline retorted.

Damon narrowed his eyes at her but made no reply. Instead he ignored her and addressed Stefan.

"Stef I'm hungry. Let's you and me make a trip to the basement to get some lunch" Damon said casually and headed for the basement.

"Sure" Stefan replied and followed after him.

"But you don't…." Caroline started but they'd sped off before she could finish.

"He doesn't drink human blood" she told Elena looking befuddled.

"They're hiding something" Elena said

"Not for long. C'mon, let's find Bonnie" Caroline said determinedly.

**S**ucking blood from a bag was not nearly as satisfying as the fresh stuff but Damon had promised Elena he would at least try to stop feeding from people. She didn't know what she was missing and one of these days he vowed he was going to teach her to revel in it. He hadn't always understood the benefits of eternity as a vampire but a few decades after he'd turned, there had been a woman who showed him what it really meant to be a vampire. She'd taught him to feed without killing and to enjoy every delicious second that he held another person's life in his hands. He'd learned to do more than just accept what he was; he'd learned to love it and the dark side of him that it had exposed. Stefan had never learned to love it. He'd always hated being a monster and Damon could feel the disapproval coming off his brother as he plucked a second bag from the cooler and popped the top off.

"Well?" Stefan said.

"Well what?" he asked between sips.

"Well what the hell are we going to do?" Stefan asked anxiously.

"Would you keep it down? We're in a house full of supernatural ears."

Stefan rolled his eyes but lowered his voice to a whisper "What are we going to do, Damon?"

"We could tell them the truth" he replied off hand.

Stefan gaped at him "Really?"

"Jesus, Stefan. Do I look mentally challenged to you? No, not really. This has stayed between us for this long and we're going to keep it that way."

"But obviously someone else knows or none of this would be happening."

"How is that possible? They were all dead."

"Maybe it's a ghost."

"Maybe" he said, though he doubted it.

"It could be Amelia" Stefan offered.

"Why would Amelia want to expose this? She helped us. And besides, Amelia is also long dead."

Amelia had been Shelia's mother and her death had weighed on them so terribly, they'd torn down their childhood home and built a new one for her daughter. Damon shook off the memory and snagged another bag from the cooler for Elena before pushing past Stefan. His brother grabbed his arm forcefully and Damon noticed the pulsing vein on Stefan's forehead that only appeared when he was having a major melt down.

"So, what are we going to do?" Stefan demanded.

"We're going to talk to Klaus and see what he wants to do."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Do you have a better one?"

Stefan shook his head no.

"I didn't think so. Can I go now? Elena hasn't eaten today and she's probably starting to get antsy."

"You can't pour blood into crystal glasses for her forever, you know."

"Thanks for the tip, brother. I'll keep that in mind" he said and wretched his arm away.

He found Elena and Caroline sitting in the kitchen sharing a bottle of wine and looking glum.

"You look like someone kicked a puppy" he said and set the glass of O-Neg down in front of Elena. She smiled up at him in thanks and took a long drink.

"We went to find Bonnie but she must've left because we can't find the house" she replied.

"She left?" he asked, alarmed. Bonnie didn't usually leave without telling someone where she was going. It was kind of an unspoken rule in this house. They all made sure someone knew where they were going if they left the property.

"Yeah and now we're too freaked out to go shopping. So we're drinking instead" Caroline said and took a swig directly from the bottle.

"Hmm" he said and turned to leave.

Elena stood up and chased after him "Wait! Will you please tell me what's going on?" she asked, her voice pleading.

"Nothing, I'm going to go find Bonnie and make sure she's ok" he went to leave again but she grabbed his hand. He felt the tiny jolt of magic between them and pulled away from her. When he found his witch, he was going to ask her himself what kind of magic was happening between him and Elena. He knew there was more to this than love and great sex.

"Damon!" she yelled angrily.

"What, Elena? What do you want me to say?" he replied heatedly.

"I want you to be honest with me. You promised not to lie to me, remember?"

He stared at her for a long moment, his gut twisting at the sight of her beautiful brown eyes so open and trusting. There was no other option this time. Deceiving her was the only way to keep her safe. This wasn't her problem and he wasn't about to put her in danger if he could help it.

"I'm not lying to you" he insisted, though the words tasted bitter in his mouth.

Never in his many, many years on this earth had he ever felt bad about lying to anyone and the persistent twinge of guilt he felt when he lied to her was making him angry. He'd spent decades being a borderline serial killer but somehow this girl had managed to dig his conscience out from whatever dark corner it had been hiding in. It was depressing. Her face fell at his words and he had to fight the itch to pull her into his arms and soothe her.

"Yes you are" she said softly.

Damon shook his head, aggravated at the situation.

"I have to find Bonnie" he said and disappeared before she could say anything else.

**"H**e lied to me. He lied right to my face. After everything we've been through. After everything that's happened. He lied to me _again_" Elena said miserably.

The hurt burned through her like wild fire. The heightened emotions were something she was still learning to deal with and right now she _really_ felt like killing something. Instead, she sat back down at the kitchen island and snatched up the wine bottle. Finishing it off in one gulp, she went to the rack against the back wall for another bottle. Snapping off the neck of the bottle with her super-strength, she poured the majority of the tart white wine down her throat.

"Hey! Save some for me!" Caroline grabbed the bottle away and took it back to the table "How do you know he's lying. He could be as confused as we are."

"I just know" Elena sat back down and took another swallow of wine.

"Ok…but how?"

"Trust me. I know when he's lying."

"Yeah, but how? I mean, Damon is a pretty epic liar when he wants to be."

"I don't know, Caroline! I just do!" she shouted. She was getting frustrated and she felt the hunger setting in. She glanced at the glass Damon had poured her earlier but it was empty.

"Ok, ok. Sorry" Caroline pouted and finished off the second bottle.

"No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. I'm hungry and irritated."

"If you're hungry just go downstairs."

Elena hesitated "I've never been down there."

"You haven't?" Caroline asked, sounding surprised.

"No. Damon has been bringing me blood. The bags…They weird me out, ok?"

"Well I would say it's high time you got over that" the blonde got to her feet and dragged Elena out of her chair.

"But…"

"No buts! You're a vampire, Elena and honestly I'm disappointed in you. You're the last person I thought would want to be coddled by her boyfriend."

The words hit home and Elena steeled herself "You're right, I'm being a baby. Let's go."

**C**aroline Forbes had never had a best friend before Elena Gilbert. She and Bonnie had always been close but she'd watched her grow from a tiny baby and it wasn't the same. For sixty years she'd secretly wished for another girl to share her secrets with, to go shopping and drink wine with. And while she would never wish vampirism on anyone, she couldn't help but be excited to have her wish granted. She had actually hugged Damon when he told her that he was going to ask Elena to stay with them. Now her friend was upset and she found herself feeling very protective.

"Maybe Damon has a good reason for lying to you" she offered as they made their way down the stairs.

"What possible good can come from lying to the person you love?" Elena asked bitterly.

"I don't know" she acknowledged "but I still don't understand how you even know he's lying."

Elena stopped at the bottom of the steps and Caroline watched her take a deep breath before she spun around to face her.

"We have this…connection. I can't explain it but ever since I turned, I can read him like a book. It's the same with him. One look at my face and he knows exactly where my mind is."

"I can't believe you've never mentioned this to me before" Caroline said, feeling more than a little hurt.

Elena shrugged "Damon and I haven't even really talked about it. And honestly Care, it scares me a little bit. When we're together and we share blood, it's like we're one person. Sometimes I don't know where I begin and he ends."

Caroline chewed on her lip and looked away. Since the day she'd turned, she'd devoured every book she could find on vampires and this sounded a lot like something she'd read about a few years ago.

"What?" Elena said.

"It's nothing" Caroline edged around Elena and made her way over to the cooler.

"Now _you're _lying"

She plucked out two blood bags and handed one to Elena "I might be wrong and I don't want to freak you out even more than you already are."

Her friend wrinkled her nose at the bag before popping the top of and taking a tentative sip. Caroline mirrored the action and they leaned against the cooler for a moment quietly drinking.

"Tell me" Elena said finally.

"Are you sure? It's pretty strange stuff."

"I can take it Caroline" she said resolutely.

Caroline huffed out a breath "It's called a Sire Bond and I suspect you've put yourself in a Blood Bond, too."

"Great, well I'm glad we cleared that up" she said sarcastically.

"You're spending too much time with Damon. You're starting to sound like him."

"Sorry, go on" Elena said sounding a little sheepish.

Caroline took a deep breath "Ok so the Sire Bond happens when you have deep feelings for the vampire who turns you. When you share blood with your sire, it seals the bond and it's called a Blood Bond. From what I've read, it's pretty much unbreakable once you've shared blood and there are a lot of…side effects. One of them is that you know him better than probably anyone on the planet. Another is that you would do anything to make him happy. You'd throw yourself off a cliff if he said it would make him smile."

"That's ridiculous" Elena said but she sounded unsure.

"Is it? Think about it, Elena. Has there been one thing that you've denied Damon since you turned?"

Caroline watched the wheels turn in Elena's mind before her eyes went wide "Oh my god…You're right."

"Look, I know you're all about not lying to Damon but I really don't think you should tell him about this yet. Not until we talk to Bonnie and we're sure it's really a Sire Bond."

Elena nodded slowly "I think you're right."

"You do?" Caroline was surprised. She hadn't expected Elena to agree so readily.

"Yeah I mean with everything else going on this is kind of the least of our worries, right?"

"Right" she agreed.

They'd both finished their blood bags and Elena was eyeing the cooler.

"You can have another one if you're still hungry"

"Are you sure it's ok?"

"Of course it's ok. This is your house too, Elena."

"I know. I'm just afraid if I have too many I won't be able to stop"

Caroline's heart went out to her "I know what you mean. The hunger is a scary thing because it's always there. You can try my method if you want. I give myself a number and stick to it. Like today it's six. I can have six blood bags and then I have to stop. On a bad day, my number is ten."

"That's actually a really good idea" Elena smiled at her gratefully.

"I know" she said returning the smile "So start out small, ok? Today your number is four. You can have three more today and then you stop."

"Ok. I think I can do that."

"You _can _do that"

Elena slung her arm around Caroline's shoulder "What would I do without you, Care?"

"Well you wouldn't know where Damon hides the good wine, that's for sure" Caroline wiggled her eyebrows and grinned.

A devilish gleam appeared in Elena's eyes and she grinned back "Lead the way"

Caroline grabbed her hand and they raced off towards the wine cellar.

**_"B_**_roody much?" _

That's what Damon would say if he could see Stefan right now. He sat at the large writing desk in his room and gazed sadly at the weathered photo in his hands. It was a black and white that had gone yellow with age but he could still perfectly imagine the honey colored skin and the flowing blonde hair of the girl in the photo. The camera hadn't come close to doing her justice. You couldn't see the twinkle in her blue/green eyes, or the freckles dappled across her cheeks. A photo couldn't capture her soft laughter or the sound of her voice, but he could still hear both clear as day in his mind.

"Rebekah" he whispered, tracing his finger over her face.

His brother's angry footsteps interrupted his reminiscences and he hurried to shove the photo into a drawer. He slammed the drawer shut a second before Damon stormed into the room.

"What's your problem?" Stefan asked.

"She accused me of lying to her"

"You are lying to her"

"Yes, I'm aware of that but she's not supposed to know I'm lying. I am an excellent liar."

"That's true" Stefan agreed.

"So how the hell does she know I'm lying?"

"I don't know Damon, maybe because you spend every single waking moment together"

"No, there's something else going on. She knew without a single doubt that I was lying to her. I need to find Bonnie."

"What do you mean _find _Bonnie?"

"Apparently she left. Elena and Caroline can't find the house."

"So what makes you think you can find her?"

"I can always find her if I think about it hard enough."

"The blood thing?"

"I guess" Damon said uncomfortably, picking up a book and absently leafing through the pages.

"So start thinking"

"I would if I could stop thinking about Elena for five seconds. That girl is driving me nuts."

Stefan exhaled heavily. Clearly Damon wanted his help but was too proud to ask for it. He loved his brother but sometimes he wanted to strangle him.

"Do you want some help?" he asked.

"How are _you_ going to help me stop thinking about Elena?" Damon set the book down and started to wander the room aimlessly.

"Sit down"

"Why?"

"Do you want my help or not?"

Damon rolled his eyes but took a seat at the table in the center of the room.

"Close your eyes"

His brother eyed him cynically "Seriously?"

"Screw this, find Bonnie yourself" Stefan stalked toward the door.

"Wait!" Damon called after him "I'll play along."

He turned back and sat down at the table across from his brother "Ok, close your eyes and try to relax."

Damon closed his eyes and settled back in the chair with his arms crossed over his chest.

"What was the first thing Bonnie said to you this morning?"

"She said 'you're up early'"

"And what did you say back?"

"I told her she was up early, too"

"Then what did you talk about?"

Damon's crystalline eyes popped open "How is this supposed to help?"

"You're a pain in the ass, you know that? You said you'd play along so shut your eyes or get out of my room."

Damon mumbled something inaudible under his breath but lowered his lids again.

"We talked about the dreams she was having and that I was mad at her for keeping them from me."

"What was she wearing?"

Damon heaved a sigh "I don't know. Jeans, a sweater, and a scarf I think."

"Good. Was her hair up or down?"

"Down. She just cut it and it's too short to..." He paused before his eyes snapped open "She's in the woods just outside the property line."

"See now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Thanks, brother" Damon said, sounding surprised and sincerely grateful.

Damon got up from the chair and headed for the door but stopped when he didn't follow.

"Coming?" he asked.

Stefan had actually planned on wallowing in his past sorrows some more, but since his brother actually wanted his help he nodded and left the room alongside Damon.

**F**or the life of him, Damon could not figure out what Bonnie would be doing all the way out there. There was nothing there, just a bunch of trees and a few squirrels that Stefan had yet to eat. Even with his vampire speed, it felt like it took forever to get to the spot that had appeared in his mind. When they found her they stopped and stared at each other, mystified. Bonnie was on her knees in the middle of a clearing, tearing at the earth with her hands.

"Uh, Bonnie?" Stefan called out but she didn't even look up.

"Where _is _it? I know it's here. It's got to be here" he could hear her muttering to herself as she ripped at the dirt and grass.

"You lose your favorite bone, Fido?" Damon asked as he approached her.

She stopped and faced him with wild eyes and mud on her face.

"I can't find it!"

"You're being annoyingly vague today, Witchy. You can't find what?"

"Grams' grimoire. It wasn't in the house so I did a locater spell and it said it was here but I can't find it."

"Why would your Grams hide her grimoire here? In fact, why would she hide it at all?" he asked.

"I don't know!" she cried dejectedly and sat back on the forest floor.

"Why don't you let us take you back to the house and we'll figure it out together, ok?" Stefan said gently.

Bonnie nodded gloomily and swiped at the dirt on her cheek with her arm. Damon held out his hand to her and she reached up to grab it. His vision blurred the moment their fingers touched and suddenly he was standing in the same clearing but it looked slightly different. The grass was a bright summery green instead of dead and brown like it had been a moment ago. The trees all had their leaves and the sky was a cheery blue. A small patch of earth was scorched from a fire that was still smoldering at the center and in his hands was an old book. Except they weren't his hands, they were distinctly feminine and the skin was light mocha in color. If he wasn't mistaken, and he was pretty sure he wasn't, they were Sheila Bennett's hands. He, or Shelia, or he and Shelia, or whatever the hell this was, moved toward a massive old tree at the back of the clearing. They waved their hand over the front and said a quick incantation. To his utter amazement, a knot in the tree swung open and the hands placed the book inside the opening. Then his vision blurred again and he was back to the chilly, overcast day, with trees whose bare branches looked like claws reaching into the sky. His hand was still tightly gripping Bonnie's and she looked as shocked as he felt.

"What the fuck was that?" he asked her.

"I have no idea. Did you see…?" she replied and pulled her hand away as she scrambled to her feet.

"The tree?" he said.

"Yes! Which one was it?" she turned in frantic circles.

He strode confidently over to the old tree and placed his hand on the knot "This one."

She nodded her agreement and stood in front of it. Closing her eyes, she waved her hand in front of it and repeated the incantation they'd heard in the vision. The knot swung open and sure enough, the book was inside. Bonnie carefully removed it and clutched it to her chest.

"Is anyone going to tell me what the hell just happened?" Stefan asked.

"I think we shared a vision" Bonnie told him.

"A vision?" Stefan sounded doubtful.

"It was like I was my Grams and she showed me where she hid her grimoire."

"Same thing happened to me" Damon said.

"The blood thing with you two is just weird" Stefan shook his head at them.

"You know, Grams always said that we'd barely skimmed the surface of the blood connection. She thought there was a lot of untapped potential there" Bonnie said conversationally as they started back toward the Bennett house.

"Did she?" Damon asked his interest all of the sudden piqued.

"Yes, she did. As far as she could tell, no other witch has ever connected her entire bloodline to a vampire. Grams thought the possibilities of the vampire/witch combo were kind of endless."

Damon considered this as the three of them walked through the trees. He hadn't really thought about it much when he'd made the agreement. It had seemed like the smart thing to do at the time and it had worked out for him and several generations of Bennett witches. Now he couldn't help but wonder what these endless possibilities were. Of all the Bennett witches he'd known over the years, Shelia was by far the most cunning and powerful since Emily herself. If she thought there was more to the connection than the few parlor tricks he'd picked up over the years, then he was sure she was right.

"Damon?" Bonnie's voice interrupted his musings.

"Hmm?" he said distractedly.

"Do you remember the spell that Emily used to bind our blood?"

"Like the actual words? No, it sounded like the same old witchy gibberish to me."

"What did she say to you exactly when she made the offer?"

"That I do remember. She said it would bind our blood for as long as I was around and there was at least one living Bennett witch. She also told me there was no undoing it. I remember her saying _'ours will be an eternal bond, Damon_._ One that lives on through all planes of existence, so as long as you exist and the Bennett's exist, there will be a connection. _"

"All planes of existence? She said that?"

"I just said she said that, didn't I?" he replied, exasperated. She knew he hated repeating himself.

"Yes. Sorry. It's just…Well I can't be sure but I think that might mean that you're still connected to all the Bennett witches that have died and are on The Other Side. So that would mean that you and I are both linked to all the Bennett magic going back to Emily."

"Holy shit, how many generations is that?" Stefan chimed in.

"Uuuhh six, I think" Damon thought about it "Let's see; there was Emily and her four kids. One of her two boys died of typhoid fever in the 1880's so that left the two girls and a boy. The two girls who were, quite frankly, terrified of me had one daughter each. One of those daughters died young in childbirth and I got along with the other just fine. She showed up on my door one day in the early 1900's, said she knew about the connection and she needed my help with a vampire who was ransoming her husband for a daylight ring. That was Shelia's grandmother, Ava. And the boy, damned if I can remember his name, had two more boys. Neither of them had any magic though and I never felt the link with them. So that's Emily, her daughter Hannah, then Hannah's daughter Ava, Bonnie's great grandmother Amelia, Shelia, Abby and Bonnie."

"That's seven including me" Bonnie said, sounding lost in thought.

"Ok fine, seven" he conceded "What does it matter?"

"I'm not sure yet but I think you and I should talk about it soon"

"I agree" he said "How about now? Stefan can go make sure Caroline and Elena don't drink all the good wine, while you and I have a little chat."

She looked startled by the suggestion but agreed "Ok, but can we go to my house? I have a couple of books I want to check."

"Sure. Stef, will you check on our resident winos please?"

"On it" he said and disappeared into the woods.

It would seem that Stefan didn't find the Bennett family history as fascinating as he and Bonnie did. They walked in silence until they reached the Bennett house.

"Damon?" Bonnie said before they went inside.

"What?"

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

He gave her a long look before turning back to the house and climbing the porch steps without replying. He heard her sigh behind him as he pulled the screen door open and stepped into the cozy living room that had once been the opulent foyer of his childhood home.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for the wait on this chapter! I hope everyone likes it! Is anyone else dying for the Delena reunion on TVD? *chanting* rain kiss, rain kiss, rain kiss!**

**As always, I'd love to know what you think (About the story, the chapter, my writing in general, TVD…). Until next chapter – xoxo **

**Chapter 3**

**T**here was something very strange about seeing Damon Salvatore meander around her living room. Obviously she knew that once upon a time this had been his house, but she couldn't ever remember seeing him here before now. She and Grams had always ventured up to the big house if they had business with Damon.

"Do you want to sit down?" she asked, trying to make the situation slightly less awkward.

He was examining the photos lined up across the hearth in the family room and he'd stopped to pick one up. The corner of his mouth was turned up in a tiny, almost imperceptible, smile as he looked at the photo in his hands.

"You would have liked your great-grandma" he said instead of answering her question.

"Were you close to her?" Bonnie called from the kitchen.

She pulled two glasses from the cupboard and poured a small amount of her Grams' brandy into each one before returning to the living room and handing one to Damon.

"Sort of. She liked to break rules and push the limits of her powers. It got her into trouble more than once"

"And you had to get her out of trouble?"

"She was the only Bennett witch I've ever had to bail out of jail."

"She was in jail?" Bonnie said, fascinated "Grams never told me that. What did she do?"

"I doubt Amelia would have told your Grams' that. She calmed down a lot after she had Shelia."

Bonnie sat down on the couch and took a tiny sip of her drink "So why did you have to bail her out of jail?"

The smile spread across his face as he continued to stare affectionately at the photo.

"She zapped a cop with her powers and knocked him unconscious for, and I quote, 'getting fresh' with her. I had to compel the nice officer to think he took a nasty tumble instead of being magically tossed across the street."

"You liked her" she remarked, happily. It was nice to hear him speak fondly of her great grandmother. Grams had never said much about her except that she'd died when Grams was just 16. It had never occurred to her to ask Damon about her ancestors but now that she thought about it, he probably knew more about her family than anyone.

"I did, being a bit of a rule breaker myself" he said and winked at her.

She laughed and shook her head at him "Will you tell me more about her sometime?"

"Sure" he set the photo down and finally took a seat in the armchair across from her.

"So the blood connection…" she said, unsure of where to start

"Yeah" he appeared similarly uncertain.

"Um, can you just tell me everything you know about it? The spell in the grimoire is actually pretty simple but it doesn't really explain how it works."

"Are you up for a little trip down memory lane?" he asked.

She settled back on the couch "Go for it"

Damon took a long breath "Ok…"

_-1864-_

_Damon was standing in the living room draining the idiot Fell boy dry when the pounding at the door started. The kid, who couldn't be more than 18, had tried to break into the house with nothing but a pathetic little stake and as far as Damon was concerned, he got what he deserved. What kind of moron attacks a vampire at night anyway? _

"_My father will come for you if you kill me" he'd said when Damon had easily disarmed him and backed him into a wall._

"_Good. I like when meals show up at the front door" _

_The kid had tried to run but it was useless and in seconds Damon was sucking the life out of him. The pounding had begun a minute later. He'd tried to ignore it but whoever it was, they weren't giving up._

"_A man can't even finish dinner in his own house…" he dropped his now dead supper in a heap on the floor. _

_He threw the door open, fully prepared for another founding family member to make an attempt on his life. Instead, he found a frantic looking Emily Bennett. _

"_Mr. Salvatore, thank goodness you're here" she shoved past him and into the house. _

"_Come right in, Miss Bennett" he said sardonically and trailed after her. _

_She stopped at the body on the floor "Did you kill this boy?" _

_Oddly, there was no judgment or disdain in her voice. It was just a question. _

"_Yes" he replied. _

"_Why?" she asked in the same purely inquisitive tone. _

"_Because he broke into my house to kill me and I was hungry" _

_She nodded thoughtfully "I have a proposition for you" _

_His first instinct was to dismiss her but his curious nature intervened. Besides, with council members trying to kill him at every turn, it might be a good idea to form an alliance with a powerful witch. _

"_I'm listening" _

_Her shoulders relaxed and she looked relieved "The founding families are going to come for me and soon. They know I was Katherine's handmaid so they know I'm a witch and they know I made your daylight rings. If you'll help me, if you'll save my children, my family will be forever indebted to you."_

"_Forever is a long time, Miss Bennett. Especially when you're talking to the undead" he warned. _

"_I'm aware of that but desperate times call for desperate measures" _

_Damon stared at her for a long moment "Say I agree to this. What is it that you expect of me?" _

"_Kill them, compel them, do whatever you have to do, but when they come for us, you have to get my babies out of this town. Get them as far away from Mystic Falls as you can and when they grow up, they'll do anything magical you need in exchange for your protection." _

"_And what about you?" _

"_If you can save me then please do but…"_

"_Yes, yes, save your children. I got that part. What makes you think I'm going to stay in this town long enough to be of any help to you?" _

"_I'd like to connect us with a spell. That way you'll know if I'm in distress and if you need me, I'll know too" _

"_Connect us how?" he said, suddenly suspicious. _

"_Through our blood" she said. _

"_If this is some kind of trick…" _

"_I swear to you, on everything that I am, this is not a trick" panic and desperation flashed across her face "This will be mutually beneficial for us both. My family will be safe under your protection and you will always have a witch to assist you in all things magical"  
><em>

_It seemed too good to be true but Emily appeared genuinely frightened and there was something to be said for that. Emily Bennett did not scare easily. _

"_Why me? Why not Stefan?" he asked, though he suspected he knew the answer. _

"_You killed that boy with no hesitation, no second thoughts. Stefan…"_

"_Would have compelled him and sent him on his way. That's not what you need. You need a vampire who can be ruthless if the situation calls for it."_

_She nodded and waited patiently for his answer. She didn't have to wait long. _

"_Alright, I'll do it" _

"_Are you sure? Ours will be an eternal bond, Damon_._ One that lives on through all planes of existence, so as long as you exist and the Bennett's exist, there will be a connection."_

"_You came to me, remember? Are you trying to talk me out of it now?"_

"_No, you're right. I'll meet you in your family's tomb in the morning" _

"_I'll be there" _

"_Do I have your word, Mr. Salvatore?"_

"_You have my word, Miss Bennett." _

-Present Day-

"And that's pretty much it. The next day I showed up at the tomb, she mixed our blood in a bowl with some herbs and muttered a spell. Nothing much came of it until they grabbed her a few weeks later and burned her at the stake along with every other witch in Mystic Falls. That's the first time I heard that fucking sound."

Damon finished the story and Bonnie tried to absorb every detail. She still had so many things she wanted to ask him but the look on his face stopped her. His eyes, typically alert and sharp, held a rarely seen sadness. She held out her hand for his glass and he handed it to her without question. Back in the kitchen, she poured them both a generous helping of brandy and pondered the story and the spell. Emily had been an extremely powerful witch and Bonnie couldn't wrap her head around why she had died. She should have been able to save herself with a simple cloaking spell. Bonnie was halfway back to the living room when it struck her. She'd assumed the sacrifice mentioned in the spell was the blood they'd both given, but it wasn't. It was Emily's life. Emily had exchanged her life for the safety of her family.

"Are you going to give me that drink or are you just going to stand there looking like a zombie?" Damon asked.

"What? Oh. Sorry" she handed him the drink and sat back down.

"Bonnie?" he waved his hand in front of her face "You still with me?"

"Yeah…it's…I just realized something. You've always blamed yourself for Emily's death, haven't you?"

He scowled at her in response.

"Don't get huffy. It's just a question."

"Finding her charred remains isn't exactly one of the highlights of my life. Any reason you decided to dredge up that particularly painful memory?"

"I was trying to figure out why she died. I mean, she could have easily protected herself with a spell. It didn't make any sense. Then it hit me. The spell requires a sacrifice and at first I thought it was the combination of your blood, but that's not it. That was just to seal it. It was her, she was the sacrifice. She gave up her life to save her children. It wasn't your fault that she died because she never planned on being rescued. There was nothing you could have done."

Damon said nothing at first. He just sat there with a stony expression on his face, swirling the brandy around in the glass.

"You're sure?" he asked finally.

"Yes, I'm sure" she told him resolutely.

He nodded slowly and took a gulp of his drink "Ok, well…Moving on"

"Maybe we should stop for the day" she suggested.

"Actually I have one more question for you."

"Ok, shoot."

"Elena and I…there's something there and it's not just that we're in love. Don't get me wrong, we're crazy about each other but there's magic between us and it's getting more powerful by the day"

"You mean…you don't know?" Bonnie asked with a smile. It was rare that she knew something before him.

"Know what?"

"She's sired to you, Damon. I assumed you already knew."

"Sired? That's…not possible" he looked stunned.

"No?" she asked and let him stew over it until she saw the understanding come over his face.

"Shit" he said and dragged his hand over his face.

"It doesn't change anything. She still loves you and you love her."

"We shared blood" he told her.

"Oh" she said, not understanding the relevance.

It seemed relatively harmless. It wasn't exactly unheard for vampire couples to share blood.

"Come on Bon-Bon. Think. Sired vampire shares blood with her maker and…."

"Oh! The Blood Bond!"

"Yeah, the Blood Bond" he sounded less than enthused.

It was a piece of magic that was little understood by anyone in the witching world. The effects seemed to vary depending on the vampires and their relationship. There was only one consistency among all the cases documented in the Bennett grimoire collection, it was absolutely unbreakable. Even if they wanted to, the sire couldn't release the fledging. From what she'd read though, there had never been a sire who wanted to let a blood bound fledgling go. She had a theory that the Blood Bond tied the sire to the fledgling in the sense that they felt responsible for their young vampire. They would do anything to protect them. She'd found one case where a vampire had thrown herself into the sun to save her blood bound lover.

"It doesn't matter" she asserted "You love each other and you would never use the bond to hurt her"

He looked up at her, his expression unreadable "I think you think I'm a better person than I really am"

"Damon…"

"I have to go" he stood up and walked brusquely to the front door.

"Wait!" she called after him but he had already vanished into the trees.

_**S**__he could be wrong _Damon thought, trying to appease his whirring mind. But he knew Bonnie wasn't wrong. Elena was sired to him. Not just sired, bound to him by blood for eternity. And the only thing going through his head was that he could tell her not to be angry with him and she would happily forgive him everything. She would fall willingly into his arms whenever he wanted, however he wanted. He tried to shake off the demon in him that was thrilled by the idea that she _belonged _to him, in every sense of the word.

"Fuck!" he swore and stopped to kick a tree with enough force to send bark flying. He kicked it a few more times for good measure, leaving a sizeable scar on the trunk and cursed again.

He knew he didn't really want to force her to do anything. She was the girl he loved, she was not his property. This was coming from the blackest part of him and it was a part of him he'd never had any reason to deny until recently. Every fiber of his being was telling him to go to her, to let her bring out the best in him the way she always did, but he was terrified he wouldn't be able to do the right thing. He was afraid his selfish temperament would take over and he would give in to the urge to possess her, body and soul. There was no point in pretending he didn't want that, or that at least some part of him wanted that.

"Damon?"

He whirled around to find Elena standing there looking concerned. She took a tentative step toward him and he backed away.

"Stay away from me, Elena" he could think of no other way to protect her than to send her far, far away from him.

The crushed look on her face almost broke him. He wanted so badly to gather her up and apologize for being a dick.

"Please don't say things like that" she said, sounding wounded.

"Trust me, it's for your own good" he told her and went to walk away "You should go somewhere with Caroline. Take a vacation. Go to Tahiti or something."

She was in front of him before he could make his escape. He tried to zip around her but she was back in front of him in a millisecond. The girl was picking up the whole vampire speed thing quick.

"Damon I know about the Sire Bond. And I know you know because I just came from Bonnie's house. She's really worried about you"

"It's you she should be worried about, Elena"

"I trust you. You won't hurt me" she placed her hand on his chest and he grabbed her wrist in a bruising grip.

"No?" he asked and backed her forcefully into a tree "You're so sure?"

She looked up at him, her gaze steady "Yes, I'm sure"

"I could tell you to do anything and you'd have no choice but to do it. That doesn't scare you even a little bit?" he searched her face, his eyes cold and penetrating.

"Of course it scares me. It scares the shit out of me. But I'm not going anywhere. That's what being in love is about, taking on the scary things together. This isn't going to be easy but we can't hide from it. We have to figure this out, you and me."

He dropped her hand and stared at her in wonder "I love you, Elena"

"And I love you, Damon"

He dipped his head and kissed her with everything he had, wishing he could drown in her warmth, her light.

"I don't know what to do" he murmured against her lips.

"What do you want to do?" she replied, cupping his face with her cool hands.

It was an innocent enough question but the answers that flew through his mind were anything but.

"What do I _want _to do? I want to kidnap you again and take you somewhere I can keep you all to myself. I want to tear your clothes off and never let you put them back on"

"So what's stopping you?"

That one gave him pause. What _was _stopping him? The answer was peering up at him with her lovely brown doe eyes.

"You, I want you to be happy. Not because I tell you to, because you're happy being with me."

"I am happy with you, Damon, and that's why I trust you. That's why I'm not worried that you're going to hurt me. We're going to make this work and we're going to do it together"

Her words had the lie from earlier burning a hole in his chest. How much longer could he really keep it from her? He felt an inexplicable pull to tell her and tell her now. It was almost impossible to resist it. The truth was literally on the tip of his tongue.

"I…" he started to tell her but he couldn't find the words "Let's go home."

"Yes, please" she said with a smile and laced her fingers through his "I'm still mad at you for lying to me and I'm not giving up on getting it out of you."

"Fair enough" he replied.

"So you admit you're lying to me!"

"That was a trap" he glowered at her

Elena grinned at her success "And you fell right into it"

With a thin smile he leaned down whispered in her ear "Good thing I always have an escape plan"

He charged off into the woods towards the house but bypassed the back door and headed toward the old pond at the back of the property. Night was setting in but there was just enough light left to illuminate the murky water and the frogs perched on top of the lily pads. Birds had taken up residence in the gazebo Stefan had erected years earlier. The thing was falling apart and it was in need desperate need of a paint job. This had never been one of his favorite places. Lifetimes ago, their father had tried to teach his sons to fish here. Of course Stefan had been a natural and dear old dad had been so pleased with him. Damon had snapped the rod in half after his umpteenth attempt to stab a worm with the hook. As usual, Giuseppe had merely shaken his head at him and turned his attention back to his golden son.

He frowned at the memory, knowing full well his father would be no less ashamed of him now than he had been then.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Per his norm Klaus had appeared next to him, seemingly from thin air.

"My father was an asshole"

Klaus nodded "I can share that sentiment. My father was not what one would call a nice man."

"Well go us for outliving our asshole fathers" he said with feigned enthusiasm.

His friend gave a little chortle of laughter "Go us indeed"

"So what did you find?"

"Nothing good" Klaus said, his voice grave "We may have a serious problem."

"What kind of problem?"

"There was a survivor"

"I was about to say 'that's not possible' but after the day I've had, anything is possible"

"This is entirely my fault and I promise you, I will sort it out."

"Nope, sorry, you don't get to take the blame for this one, Klaus. All three of us did what we had to do. So what do _we _do about this survivor?"

"Kill her"

Damon nodded "Who is she?"

"A daughter that was apparently very well hidden from us"

"Let me guess, now she's hell bent on revenge?"

"Yes, it would appear so. She's rebuilt the coven. They're not nearly as powerful as they were then but they're not to be underestimated."

"Well that's just fantastic."

"There's something else…"

"You've gotta be kidding me"

"It's not entirely bad news but it's not entirely good news either. These witches, there's a very good possibility that they know where their predecessors hid her."

"Her?"

"My sister, Damon"

"Bex? They know what happened to Bex?" he actually felt his jaw drop.

"I believe they do and I believe their intentions are the same as they were 70 years ago."

"You know I'm always up for a good massacre but Stefan…" 

"It nearly destroyed him the last time, I know"

"Looks like it's just you and me this time, then"

Klaus gave him a half smile "Once more unto the breach, dear friend."

**E**lena stood in the trees at what she hoped was a safe distance away and tried to listen to the conversation taking place by the pond. She hadn't had to use her super hearing very much and between the frogs croaking and the creatures scampering through the forest, she was having a hard time deciphering what they were talking about. It had only taken her a few minutes to track him here. She was so angry when he'd taken off like that and she'd decided to take a walk to clear her head. Instead of clearing her mind, she'd done nothing but stew over how mad she was at Damon. Her feet had done the rest and the next thing she knew, she was standing 100 yards away from he and Klaus as they carried on their secret discussion.

"_asshole fathers…serious problem…Kill her…My sister…massacre…just you and me…" _

None of it made any sense. Klaus had a sister? Massacre who? She watched Klaus zip away and with a sigh, she started to head back to the house.

"Elena"

Klaus' voice stopped her in her tracks. _Shit _she thought before she whirled around to face him.

"Hey Klaus" she tried for nonchalant.

"How much did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"Don't play dumb. It doesn't suit you."

She cast her eyes downward "Not much, not anything I could make sense of anyway"

"I'm sorry but not much is too much at the moment"

He was in front of her a half a second later, his eyes boring into hers "You didn't see me and Damon by the pond. You got lost in the woods and I found you wandering. You're embarrassed but grateful"

There was an instant of disorientation before she heard someone calling her name.

"Elena? Are you alright?"

It was Klaus. He was standing a few feet away looking concerned.

"Klaus! Thank god you found me! I've been wandering around forever looking for Damon."

"Let me walk you back to the house" he offered her his arm and she took it.

"Thank you. I can't believe I got lost. I feel so stupid"

"It could happen to anyone. You looked a little piqued. When was the last time you ate?"

"Um, I guess it was late this morning. I've been so distracted by what happened to Bonnie and the Sire Bond thing."

"Ahh finally figured that out, did you?"

"You knew about the Sire Bond?" she asked, shocked and a little upset.

"Of course I knew" he replied as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You could have said something" she said narrowing her eyes at him.

"What fun would that have been? You're a clever thing. I knew you'd get it eventually" he smiled at her and then changed the subject "Tell me what happened to Bonnie."

He listened quietly as she recounted the morning's madness. When she'd finished he simply nodded and kept walking.

"You don't seem surprised" she commented.

"When you've been around as long as I have, very little will surprise you"

They made idle chitchat as they made their way to the house. They were at the back door when her phone chirped in her pocket. She fished the device out and stared wide eyed at the read out.

"It's my uncle" she said, her voice barely a whisper. Elena hadn't spoken to her uncle since Caroline had escorted him out of the house and she had done her best to banish him from her thoughts.

"Take it inside" Klaus opened the door and led her into the kitchen.

Damon was seated at the kitchen table with a drink in his hand. He took one look at her face and was at her side. She held up the still ringing phone but said nothing.

"You want me to answer it?"

Elena nodded. She wasn't ready to talk to her uncle yet. Damon carefully plucked the phone from her hand and swiped the screen to answer it.

"Yeah" Damon said curtly.

"Who is this?" Elena heard her uncle's voice on the other line.

"The Easter Bunny. Who do you think it is?"

"I need to speak to Elena"

"She doesn't want to talk to you, so you get me. Take it or leave it"

Uncle Grayson sighed "Someone is trying to find your house"

"Who?" Damon's voice took on its serious tone.

"I didn't recognize her. She was a witch and she thought I would help you since you killed my niece"

"I'm sorry, _who_ killed your niece?" he snarled into the receiver

"I had to tell people something believable so I told them she died when you set our house on fire"

Elena reached up and snatched the phone from his hand.

"You told them _what?!_" she shouted

"Elena?"

"Did you burn our house down?" she demanded.

"My….Miranda, your aunt, wanted to know what happened to you when I called her and it was the first thing that came to mind"

"That's not an answer"

"Yes, I burned the house down. I found a dead junkie girl in the city, set the house on fire with her body inside, and told everyone that it was you."

"I hate you" she declared and handed the phone back to Damon.

**D**amon put his ear back to the receiver "Anything else?"

"The cloaking spell on your house must be damn near impenetrable unless you have the Gilbert Stake. Once I left the property, I couldn't find the place again if my life depended on it. Every time I go to where it should be, there's an empty field. The witch seemed very frustrated that I couldn't help her"

"Would you have helped her if you could?" he asked.

"No, of course not. I wouldn't do that to Elena." he paused "How is she?"

Grayson sounded so pitiful, he almost felt sorry for the man.

"Right now? She looks pretty pissed. In general she's doing exceptionally well, considering."

"This witch, she was on a serious mission and, frankly, she made me nervous. I know Elena hates me but if she's in trouble and there's anything I can do…."

"I think between three vampires, a hybrid, and a Bennett witch, we've got it covered. But I'll let you know."

"Ok then…that's it, that's all I have"

"Thanks for the heads up"

"Yes, well…for Elena" and the line went dead.


	4. Chapter 4

**Ok I might be going a tad overboard with the Bamon interaction but I just love their friendship on TVD right now. I'm trying to balance it out but if you want more from a character(s), just PM me and I'll see what I can do **** Reviews and fav's make my little fangirl heart so happy so if you like my story please let me know. And if you don't like it, I really do want to know why and how I can make it better. **

**xoxo**

**Chapter 4**

He handed the phone back to Elena but before he said could say anything, Bonnie came into the kitchen.

"Ready?" she asked Elena

"Yep!"

"Ready for what?" he demanded

"I'm staying at Bonnie's tonight" she told him.

"What? Why?"

"Because I'm upset, Damon!"

"Upset about what?" he asked, confused.

"You left me in the woods and I got lost! I would have been out there all night if Klaus hadn't found me. And you still won't tell me the truth about what happened to Bonnie this morning."

"I'm sorry I ran off, ok? I didn't think you'd get lost. We weren't even that far away from the house. And for the last time, I don't know what happened to Bonnie this morning!"

"Yes you do! Or at least you have some idea about why it happened"

"Elena…"

"No, I'm not talking about it until you're ready to tell us what's really going on"

"So you're just going to run away to Bonnie's? I thought you said we were in this together"

"How can we be in this together if you won't even trust me enough to be honest with me?"

"This isn't about trust, Elena. This is about keeping you safe"

"You said it yourself a minute ago! I'm a vampire who's surrounded by three other vampires, a witch and a hybrid. I think I'm good"

She said it in an annoyingly familiar snarky tone that grated on his nerves.

"You know what? I think you should go to Bonnie's tonight" he told her.

"Fine, I was going to anyway"

"Fine!" he knew he sounded like a petulant child but he didn't care.

Caroline bounded into the room with a duffel bag in her hand "What did I miss?"

"Nothing, we were just leaving. Let's go" Elena told her angrily.

"Wait, where are _you_ going?" Klaus asked Caroline.

"I'm going with them" she replied

"But…"

"No buts. You disappeared at the crack of dawn this morning and then wouldn't answer your phone all day!" she shouted at him.

"I had errands to run, Caroline" he said through his teeth.

"Oh please, you're in cahoots with him" she gestured to Damon with her bag "and don't even try to lie and tell me you're not."

Klaus looked furious but said nothing as the three girls trooped out the back door.

He turned to Damon and scowled "Damn nosy women"

"I need a drink. And where the hell is Stefan?"

"I'm here" Stefan said as he entered the kitchen "The girls made off with a few bottles of Dom"

Damon examined his brother and raised an eyebrow "You look weird"

Stefan shrugged but said nothing.

"You were drinking human blood" Klaus stated without hesitation.

"I have no idea what you're talking about" he said it assertively but Stefan's green eyes flicked away and Damon knew Klaus was right.

"Coming over to the dark side Stef?" Damon asked with a grin.

"After today, I'm thinking I'm going to need more than squirrel to stay alive and be helpful" Stefan confessed.

Half of Damon cheered inwardly at his brother's sudden change of heart but he knew he would have to keep an eye on him. Stefan had control issues when it came to human blood. Once he started, he had a hard time stopping and bodies turned up with their heads missing.

"You can wipe that look off your face, Damon. I'm taking a few little sips a day to start. I'm not going to go ripper"

"Mmm-hmmm" he replied, unconvinced.

**B**onnie was trying very hard not to ask Elena if she was ok every ten seconds as they walked to Bennett house but the girl looked utterly melancholy. She tried to imagine what it must feel like to be tied to another person so completely but she couldn't even begin to fathom the connection.

"Elena I…" she started

"I'm fine Bonnie" Elena cut her off

"Um no you're not" Caroline said

"Well I'm going to pretend to be fine for tonight, ok?"

"Ok but you kind of suck at pretending" Caroline told her

"I just…I'm so mad at him but all I can think about is being close to him. Being away from him feels…wrong" Elena said glumly "and I don't want to be some weakling who can't live without her boyfriend, even if my boyfriend and I have some magical bond that makes me do whatever he wants me to. Ugh, did I actually just say that out loud? But seriously, it's not enough that I get killed and become a vampire. Noooo, I have to be 'sired' to Damon. And then I find out my uncle, who accidently murdered me, burned our house down and told everyone I'm dead. Which I guess I technically am but still…God my life is so weird!"

"Feel better?" Bonnie asked.

She was glad that Elena had gotten if off her chest. She'd been watching her stew since this afternoon when she'd shown up minutes after Damon left and asked if she could stay the night with her. Finding out her uncle had faked her death and torched her childhood home had just been the icing on the cake.

"Not really"

Caroline rummaged through her bag and dug out a bottle of champagne. She snapped the top off and handed it to Elena

"Here, drink this. You'll feel a million times better"

Elena took a swig and passed it to Bonnie.

"Does this bottle say 1962?" she squinted at the label in the moonlight.

"It sure does" Caroline said with a wide smile.

"Damon is going to kill you" she said and took a tentative sip from the broken neck before handing it back to Caroline.

"No because Elena is going to say she took it. Right, Elena?"

"That's the plan. You were right Care, I do feel better" Elena said and took another drink.

"If drinking a $3000 bottle of champagne doesn't make you feel better, nothing will"

Bonnie grinned at them "This is fun. I mean, I'm not glad that Damon and Klaus are being secretive jerks but we haven't really had much girl time"

"You're right, this is fun" Elena said and linked arms with her and Caroline "I'm so glad we have each other"

"Me too" Caroline agreed happily.

By the time they reached the house, Bonnie was more than a little tipsy and Caroline was breaking out another bottle of absurdly expensive champagne.

"Hey! Don't break glass in my house! Use the cork" she said before Caroline could snap the top off.

Caroline rolled her eyes but smiled and flipped the cork out with a 'pop'. Elena found the stereo and turned on music. She danced her way over to Bonnie and grabbed her hand. She laughed as Elena twirled her around before breaking away to get more champagne.

"I love this song!" Caroline said and turned the volume up.

Bonnie ran to the kitchen for glasses and by the time she'd returned, there were two half-drunk vampires dancing around her living room. She was about to tell them to settle down but it had been _so _long since she'd let loose and had any fun at all. In fact, she couldn't honestly remember the last time she'd done something just for the fun of it. _If you can't beat 'em, join 'em_ she thought. The three of them danced and giggled until the third bottle of champagne was gone and Bonnie wasn't sure which was spinning, the room or her head.

"Ok, I'm done. I don't have vampire tolerance. I need sleep" she said and stumbled onto the couch.

"Hey I called the couch!" Elena said and collapsed down next to her.

"Alright but someone has to carry me to bed then. I forgot how to stand up"

"Here" Caroline offered her hand and Bonnie let her pull her up.

She slung her arm around Caroline's shoulder and let her friend half drag her down the hall and dump her in the bed.

"Thanks" she said and promptly passed out.

_**S**__he was splayed out on his bed wearing nothing but his favorite black lace bra and panties. He was hovering over her, whispering her name and all the things he wanted to do to her. _

"_I love touching you 'Lena" his voice was low and husky, sending little shivers down her spine as he ran his hand up her thigh and over her abdomen._

"_And you look so sexy all laid out on my bed. Know what I want to do? Tie you up and never let you leave. Would you let me do that?" he purred. _

"_Yes…" she heard herself murmur "you can do anything you want to me" _

"_I was hoping you'd say that" he whispered in her ear as he pulled her arms up over her head. _

**B**onnie heard her front door squeak open and slam shut. She groaned and fought to open her eyes. Her head felt like someone had hit her several times with a brick and she was fairly certain she was still a little drunk.She pried her lids open and pulled herself out of the warm bed, vowing to inflict pain on whichever of her vampire friends that had decided to leave in the middle of the night. Padding quietly into the living room, she saw Caroline fast asleep on the floor next to the empty couch.

"Elena?" she called quietly.

There was no answer so she wrapped a blanket from the sofa around herself and walked out onto the porch. Elena was making her way across the grass in her bare feet with nothing but a t-shirt and pajama shorts on.

"Elena!" she hissed "What are you doing?"

Her friend didn't acknowledge her. She just continued walking slowly and unsteadily through the night. Bonnie shook her head as she yanked on boots and raced to catch up to her.

"Hey" she said and put a hand on Elena's shoulder.

Elena shrugged her off and kept walking.

"Elena? Can you hear me?"

Still no reply.

_She must be sleepwalking _Bonnie thought.

She'd heard it wasn't a good idea to wake sleepwalkers because they might freak out on you and a freaked out partially-asleep vampire seemed like a really bad idea, so she opted to follow her. It didn't take long to figure out that they were headed for the Salvatore house. Deciding she should know what she was walking into, she reached out to Elena's mind with her own. It wasn't something she'd tried on a person yet, having just found the spell yesterday, but it had worked ok with the squirrel. She knew she probably should have expected it but she sucked in a breath of surprise at the things Elena was feeling. _No wonder they spend so much time in bed _she thought before quickly ending the connection. Now she was at a complete loss as to what to do. Elena wasn't waking up and she hadn't brought her phone so there was no way to call the house to wake Damon up. And she was afraid if she went back to her house, Elena would be at Damon's door before she caught up to her again. An idea hit her suddenly. Bonnie knew it would make Damon mad and he would probably rather she just let Elena wander into his bed. She also knew that letting that happen would make Elena feel even weaker and more helpless than she had earlier today. She couldn't let that happen to her friend. Since their very frank discussion about the Blood Bond, she'd sensed that Elena was grasping desperately for control. The sleepover had been a good idea and they'd had such a great time. She could actually see the weight on Elena's shoulders lift as the three of them danced and laughed. She wanted her to be able to hold on to that at least until morning. With a heavy sigh, she stopped for a moment and dug around on the ground for a big enough stick and snapped it in half over her knee. Cringing, she dragged the sharp end across the tender flesh on the inside of her wrist.

"Hurry the hell up, Damon" she whispered into the dark as blood flowed steadily from her arm.

**T**he screeching in his head woke him from a _very _pleasant dream and Damon snarled viciously.

"I'm going to kill her" he said to no one as he dressed quickly and flew from the house.

There were very few things he'd seen in his life that had actually stunned him into silence but the scene he came upon in the woods stopped him in his tracks. Elena was walking across the grass, looking a little drunk, and Bonnie was trailing after her with a bleeding arm. It took almost a full minute for his brain to realize his witch was slowly bleeding to death on his lawn.

"Jesus Bonnie! What the fuck?" he flashed to her side and bit into his wrist.

Taking his outstretched arm, she drank a few drops of his blood and pulled away to look at him sheepishly.

"Damn. I really thought if I woke you up she would wake up, too"

He turned back to Elena who was still walking at a wobbly snail's pace towards his house.

"She's sleeping?"

"Yes and I'm afraid to shake her awake"

"I'll do it" he said and moved to grab Elena.

"No!"

"Why not?"

"Because she's dreaming about you"

"So?" he said it casually but his heart soared. She was dreaming about him at the same time he was dreaming about her. It didn't even occur to him to ask _how _Bonnie knew Elena was dreaming about him.

"So she already feels pathetic because she can't stand being away from you and if it's you that wakes her up, she's going to feel even more pitiful."

"Should I just let her keep going then?" he said, waving his hand at the scantily clad girl walking barefoot across the grass.

"No…" she thought for a moment "I think you should pick her up and take her back to my house"

"Then what?" he said disdainfully, knowing he wasn't going to like the answer.

"Stay at my house until the morning"

"And what, sneak out before she wakes up?"

"Yes" she said decisively

Damon glared at Bonnie in the dark "You're lucky I like you"

He chased after Elena and swept her up into her arms. Instantly she curled into his shoulder and mumbled his name.

"You're never going to make anything easy for me, are you?" he said quietly to the sleeping girl.

"Thank you, Damon" Bonnie said earnestly

"Yeah, yeah. You know Stefan is supposed to be the hero, right?"

"Not in her story" she told him "You're not exactly a knight in shining armor but you are definitely her hero"

"You don't think I ruined her life?" the question had been rattling around in his head since she'd turned and it seemed that he was just exhausted enough tonight to say it out loud.

"No, I think you saved her. I wouldn't wish vampirism on anyone but her uncle keeping her locked up like that…" Bonnie shook her head sadly "she was never going to get to really live, have friends, fall in love. Grayson would have kept her there forever and she would have stayed out of loyalty to him. You kidnapping her, it gave her the chance to have a life"

"But this life…"

"Is better than being a prisoner in her own home with a man who did nothing but lie to her" Bonnie interrupted.

They'd arrived back at Bonnie's house and Damon felt his stomach clench. He was lying to her the same way her uncle had. He'd told himself this had nothing to do with her and he was just keeping her safe but he knew the truth. He was afraid she would hate him for what happened and afraid he wouldn't be able to make her understand. But seeing as she'd just tried to walk two miles wearing nothing but her pajamas in freezing weather while she was asleep, he figured he probably owed her the truth. Making his way to the living room, he set her gently down on the couch and pulled the blanket over her.

"I was dreaming about her, too" he told Bonnie as he followed her into the dining room and sat down across from her at the table.

"You were? Was it…I mean…were you…?" she struggled for words.

"Are you asking me if we were naked?" he asked and grinned lewdly at her.

"Yes" she replied and blushed.

"Yeah, it was a pretty steamy dream"

Bonnie blushed again "I think you called her to you"

"You think I did what?"

"Not on purpose or anything but I think your dream called her to you. She was…having a similar dream"

"How could you possibly know that?"

"I wanted to see where she was going and I found this spell yesterday that lets you get a read on what another being is feeling so…yeah" she said uncomfortably.

Damon shook his head and wondered if there was anything she couldn't do. She was getting more powerful by the day.

"Sometimes you and your magic freak me out, Witchy. Do you have any more of that brandy? Or maybe some of my extremely rare champagne?" he asked her, thinking this conversation was definitely going to require alcohol.

"Ahhh, the champagne is gone" she looked down at the table guiltily "But I still have the brandy"

"You drank all five bottles?" he said, slightly annoyed. He'd had to compel several people at a very prestigious auction house for that particular champagne.

"Five? No, there were only three"

"Looks like Stefan managed to hide a couple. I hope you girls enjoyed your nine grand worth of booze"

Bonnie smiled widely "We did"

He rolled his eyes at her "How 'bout that brandy? It's four in the morning and you woke me out of a really intense sex dream."

"Only if you promise to stop talking about your sex dream"

"Deal"

She rose and poured him a brandy and got herself a glass of water before sitting back down at the table across from him.

He took a long swallow and listened to be sure Caroline and Elena were still sleeping. Damon stared at the floral table cloth for a several long moments and chose his words carefully.

"I'm going to tell you what's going on and you're going to tell me whether you think we should involve the other two. I wanted to do this without you but it doesn't look like it's going to work out like that. I'm going to need your help" he told Bonnie.

Damon saw the shock pass over her face quickly before she braced herself.

"Another trip down memory lane?" she asked.

"Yeah but this story is considerably more bloody. I don't even know where to start…." he took another drink of the brandy and wished that it was bourbon "I guess we'll start with Rebekah, Klaus' sister."

"Klaus has a sister?"

"Don't interrupt. Yes, Klaus has a little sister named Rebekah. She and Stefan were madly in love and all the two of them ever wanted was to be human together. About 70 years ago, they found a coven of witches who claimed they could make a cure to vampirism. Klaus and I tried to tell them it was bullshit, that there's no such thing, but they wouldn't hear it. They convinced Rebekah that they needed her Original blood to complete the potion so one night she snuck off to help them finish it. If she'd just waited one more day…Klaus and I managed to snatch one of the coven members and used our special brand of persuasion to get her to tell us what they really wanted. They wanted her blood so they could connect themselves to all the vampires in her blood line and control them. Their plan was to create an army of vampire slaves to kill anyone who tried to stop them from taking power from other covens. These witches were by far the most power hungry freaks I've ever come across. The leader, Diana, coveted one witch's power in particular" he gave Bonnie a pointed look.

"My great grandma, Amelia's?"

"Bingo"

"I don't get it though. Why would she need Klaus' sister to control the vampires?"

"Because she's an Original and every vampire's bloodline connects to one of the five original vampires. So you control Rebekah, you control every vampire in her bloodline. That's a lot of damn vampires."

"So what happened?"

"They took Rebekah down and hid her somewhere. There's a blade that when you dip it in a special kind ash from a white oak tree, it can take out an Original. It doesn't kill them, but it puts them to sleep until the dagger comes out. They got their hands on the dagger, used it on Rebekah, and then they hid her body. Klaus, Stefan, and I spent weeks looking for her. We tore apart half the eastern seaboard trying to find her. We finally had to admit that we weren't going to find her before they performed the ritual. We all agreed they had to be stopped, even if we had to kill them all. Amelia put her magical feelers out and was able to tell us where they were. She insisted on coming with us. I should have stopped her but I didn't. We needed her."

He stopped to finish the brandy and wiggled his glass at Bonnie. Amelia was a touchy subject for him, it stung to think about her and talking about the night she'd died wasn't something he'd ever discussed with anyone. She got up and set the bottle on the table in front of him. Tipping the bottle gratefully at her, he poured a generous amount into the glass and took a long drink before he continued.

"When we got to that creepy little chapel, they'd already started. Amelia did everything she could to talk them out of it but, I'm telling you Bonnie, they were crazy. They really thought they deserved to be all powerful, that they were the only ones who had earned the power. They called her a traitor to her kind for not killing me and Stefan. That kind of pissed her off so she drained their power. They just started dropping like flies, grabbing their heads and screaming. Once Diana was down, Amelia told us to finish it" he hesitated before taking a deep breath "So we did. We killed them all. Klaus…he was pissed that Rebekah wasn't there and he ripped them to pieces. Once he'd finished his exceptionally bloody temper tantrum, Amelia told us to burn it down so the magic wouldn't linger."

"That's what I saw in my vision, isn't it? The aftermath"

Damon nodded "Apparently there was a survivor and near as I can tell you saw what she saw in the ten minutes it took us to go get the gas to burn the place down"

"What happened to my great grandma?"

"All that magic…I guess it was too much. I should have never let her take them all. We should have just started killing them. She seemed fine at first. A little shaken up but I thought that was understandable. Once we got her back to the house she collapsed. She made me swear I'd take care of your Grams and then she died in my arms"

Bonnie's large green eyes were filled with sorrow "You've never told anyone that, have you?"

"Nope" he replied and finished the brandy. Memories of that night wound their way through his brain, bringing back long forgotten feelings of guilt and anger.

"I won't pretend to understand how you can commit mass murder, Damon, but you did what you had to do. Who knows what they would have done with an army of vampires? My great grandma wouldn't have helped you if she thought there was another way."

"I just finished telling you that I helped slaughter at least 30 people and then stood by while my friend tore them limb from limb, and you're justifying it?" he asked bewildered "Suddenly your friendship with Elena makes perfect sense"

"No…maybe…I don't know. All I know is that my great grandma didn't ask just anyone to take care of her teenage daughter, she asked you. She could have sent Grams away to family or to another coven but she wanted her to stay with you. I know you think that all the things you've done make you evil but that's not what I see when I look at you. I see my friend who would do anything to help the people he cares about. I see the man who loves Elena so much he would rather walk away from her than cause her even a moment of pain. If that makes you evil then I guess I'm evil, too"

Damon shook his head at her in astonishment. All the other Bennett witches he'd known had come to him later in life but this one he'd known since she was in diapers. She was different than the rest. Bonnie really knew him and, for whatever reason, she trusted him. Even when she was a kid, she'd been eerily comfortable around him. When she was really little, her mother had tried to poison her against him and the place that had become her second home. Abby told her the big house was filled with monsters that would eat her alive. The warnings had been summarily ignored and soon after, Abby had disappeared. Bonnie had flourished; growing into the smart, powerful young woman sitting in front of him. She'd found her happy place learning to cook in his kitchen. Even when his humanity was hanging by a thread and his temper bordered on lethal, she had never stopped coming to their cooking lessons. The true test of her resolve had come when Stefan died and some part of him had snapped. He'd started killing at random, coming home drunk, bloody, and pissed off most nights. The only thing that had kept some small part of his humanity alive had been Shelia and Bonnie. They refused to give up their weekly dinners and their promises to find a way to bring Stefan back had kept him going for years. A month or two before Sheila died he'd started to doubt their assurances. He became hostile and angry at his best. On his bad days, Ted Bundy would have been impressed. He'd been known to toy with a person for hours before finally killing them. Still, the witches wouldn't give up on him. Damon had been a breath away from flipping the switch entirely when Sheila found the spell to bring his brother back. She and Bonnie had dragged him back from the edge and helped him when he deserved it the least. And here he was again, asking for help from a Bennett witch. He swore to himself that this one wasn't going to die on his watch.

"Ok Witchy, so you've heard the truth and you're not freaking out. How do you think this is going to go over with Elena?" he was counting on Bonnie to tell him the truth.

She thought about it for a long minute "Blood bond or no blood bond, I think Elena would forgive you almost anything. She knows what she signed up for, Damon. She _gets _you and I think you need to tell her about all this, if for no other reason than she's going to be our secret weapon. No one knows she's alive except for us and her uncle."

"Why does that matter?"

"I don't know for sure yet. I'm still sorting through all the readings. But, as I'm sure you know, after you left Elena came over. You were both so upset about the bond that I decided to dig through all the grimoires I have to see if there was any way to break the bond. Before you ask, there's not, but I learned a lot about what a blood bond means. You and Elena have an almost psychic connection. All either of you needs to do is think about the other to know where they are"

"That works with you, too" he told her.

"It does?"

"Yep. That's how I found you digging around in the dirt like a crazy person today"

"Huh…I guess I've never needed to find you before so I didn't know" she said and looked intrigued

"What about the thing that happened tonight?"

"You called her to you in your sleep. I assume you could do it on purpose too, if you wanted to."

"Ok so what else did you find?"

"Well you already know the part about being able to tell her what to do…" she said evasively

"Come on Witchy, spit it out. I know there's something you don't want to tell me"

"There are a few entries where the sire died and the bound vampire…well they just withered away into nothing"

"I'll just have to not die then" he said more confidently than he actually felt.

"And there were more than a few that talked about the sire being very possessive of the fledgling. Like you might want to take her somewhere and keep her there, just the two of you. Have you felt like that?"

Damon could hear the anxiety in her voice "Yes but I promise you, I'm not going to take her away. I want her to be happy, really happy, and it's not going to be real if I make her leave with me"

"I didn't mean to insinuate that you would…"

He held up a hand to stop her "You don't want to lose her. Believe me, I get it"

She nodded "I'm glad we talked about this, Damon"

"Yeah well, you know how I love a good heart to heart" he stared down at the glass in his hand for a moment "Listen if something does happen to me, you have to make her keep going. You can't let her shrivel up and die just because I'm not around"

"Nothing is going to happen to you" she said in that strange, overly calm tone that both pacified and made him a little nervous.

"Bonnie…" he chided

"Ok fine, _if _something happens then I'll take care of her. But we're not going to let anything happen to you"

He looked out the window and hoped she was right "Sun's coming up. How long should I stay?"

"You can go whenever you're ready. I'll text you when she's awake and tell her to go talk to you. I'll explain things to Care"

"**T**hat's it?" Elena stared at Damon, her mouth agape.

"What do you mean 'that's it'?" he said sounding bemused.

They were sitting on the couch in the living room and Damon had just finished telling her the sad, bloody tale that Bonnie had warned her was coming.

"I don't know. I mean, that's horrible but I knew who you were before I fell in love with you. I knew what I was getting myself into, Damon."

The look on his face was priceless. He looked completely blown away that she hadn't run screaming from the room. She might have laughed if they weren't having a conversation about mass murder.

"You are, without a doubt, the perfect woman for me"

"Well obviously" she said with an exaggerated eye roll

"So I had a dream about you last night" he told her, casually changing the subject.

"I had a dream about you, too" she blurted it out before it struck her what his next question would be.

"Yeah? What about?" he asked suggestively

Elena felt her cheeks flush red and she was suddenly fascinated by the ornate rug on the floor. It was by far the most unbelievably erotic dream she'd ever had and all she could do was shrug at him. Being with Damon had awakened a side of her she'd never known existed. With him she could be sensual and powerful but even still, she couldn't bring herself to describe the dream out loud.

"Did it involve rope and a broken headboard?" Damon asked

Her eyes darted up to meet his "How did you…?"

"I may have inadvertently pushed my dream on you through the blood bond"

"Um…what?"

"I don't know. Bonnie explained it better. Basically we had the same dream and it was my fault but I didn't do it on purpose"

"Oh…well…" she wasn't sure what to say.

"We can talk about that tonight" he offered

"Yeah, ok" she said, relieved "So what are we going to do about the pack of vengeful witches that are apparently after us?"

"They're after me, not you"

"Only because they think I'm dead"

"True. Klaus and I are working on a plan but it's in the early stages"

"Ok, what's the plan so far?" she asked

"Kill everyone"


	5. Chapter 5

**TVD is back tonight! Woohoo! **

**I'd really love to know what you guys think of my take on the Sire/Blood Bond. I'm super open to suggestions and criticism. **

**~This chapter contains mature adult content~**

*****warning, I went a little darker on the steamy bit this time. If you're looking for ooey gooey romance, you might want to skip over the end of this chapter*** **

**xoxo**

**Chapter 5**

"Please say you're kidding" Elena said dryly

"Ok but you asked me not to lie to you" he said as he rose and went to the tray of alcohol behind the couch.

"Damon!" she whined

"Do you have a better idea?" he asked, sloshing bourbon into a tumbler.

"As a matter of fact I do" she told him haughtily.

"By all means, please share" he said and sat back down next to her.

"Find Rebekah"

"We tried that before and it didn't work"

"But now there are six of us and I think if we put our heads together, we can avoid another blood bath"

"Look I know you're just trying to help but this is scary shit, Elena. These witches were mental 70 years ago and now they're on the warpath."

"I know that, Damon. How many different ways can I tell you that I understand what it means to be with you? Our life is never going to be easy and it will probably always be at least a little dangerous but it's _our _life. So please stop trying to convince me to sit on the sidelines. That's not who I am and you should know that. You're acting like my uncle instead of the man who called me Warrior Princess"

"You're right. I've been treating you like you're weak and you're not. If you think you can come up with a plan to find Rebekah, then we'll try that first."

"Well…" she said, amazed that he'd actually admitted to being wrong _and _agreed to try it her way "I guess we should get started then. I'm going to talk to Bonnie. I have an idea but I have to ask her first"

"You do that. I'm going to sit here with my bourbon and not think about anything for a while."

She leaned over and pecked him on the lips "I'll be in the kitchen with Bonnie"

The witch was buzzing around the kitchen with a competency that Elena envied. Despite Bonnie and Damon's best efforts, she was a complete failure in the kitchen. She plopped down at her favorite spot and watched with fascination as Bonnie mixed and chopped.

"Whatcha makin'?" she asked

"Pizza from scratch" Bonnie replied and held a wooden spoon of tomato sauce out to Elena "Here, taste this"

"Yum! That's really good, Bonnie"

"Ugh, you're no help. You think everything I make is good. How did things go with Damon?"

"That's because everything you make _is _good. It went well and I think we're on the same page now. I have a question for you"

"Ok, shoot"

"So you know how you said that you think you might be channeling all those generations of Bennett power?"

"Yeah…"

"And you said you think Damon is connected to all of them, too?"

"Uh huh"

"What if he makes you even stronger? What if when you're near him, you could focus your power better?"

"Huh….that's an interesting theory. What made you think of it?"

"When Damon and I are training, I feel twice as strong as when I practice with Caroline. I'm faster, more powerful, and my senses go crazy. Until I found out about the Sire Bond, I thought it was just in my head. Now I'm wondering if it's the bond that makes me stronger and I wanted to run it by you to see if I'm crazy or if maybe there's something to this."

Bonnie had stopped moving around the kitchen and was looking thoughtfully at Elena.

"Well there's only one way to find out" she said and marched out of the kitchen with Elena at her heels.

They stopped in front of Damon who was now lying down on the couch with his eyes closed.

"Yes?" he said without opening his eyes.

"Nothing, you can just stay there" Bonnie told him

"That's good because I wasn't planning on moving anytime soon"

Elena watched as Bonnie held out her hand and focused her gaze intently on her palm. A second later a flame appeared and hovered above her open hand.

"Whoa" Bonnie's eyes went wide and she smiled broadly.

"I thought you could already do that" Elena said, puzzled.

"No, usually there has to be something flammable around for me to start a fire. Creating anything out of thin air is pretty much unheard of. Most witches need an entire coven to do that."

Damon's baby blues popped open and he glanced up at Bonnie "What just happened?"

"Hang on" she said and ran out of the room.

He gave Elena a questioning look and she shrugged "Don't ask me. I'm just the idea girl"

Bonnie reappeared a minute later. She was out of breath and grinning ear to ear "It didn't work outside"

"So it _is_ him?" Elena asked.

"Looks that way."

"It's him what?" Damon interjected sounding a little peeved at being left out.

"You make us more powerful" Elena said excitedly.

He sat up "Ok, you have my attention"

"Your girlfriend is brilliant" Bonnie told him.

"Yes, I know. Now explain."

"Elena noticed that when she's near you, her vampire strength and senses are even stronger than normal. She guessed it's because of the Blood Bond so she wondered if our bond might work the same way, and it does!"

Damon looked skeptical "It's never been like that with any other Bennett witch. What makes you so special?"

"Well you think that Gram's passed on all those generations of Bennett magic to me, right? And if we're right about the wording in Emily's spell you're linked to them, too. So I think being near you enhances my power"

"Do you think it would work the other way?" Elena asked Bonnie

"Like Damon might be stronger around me? I don't know. That's a good question"

Both girls turned and looked at him expectantly.

"I don't feel any different" he said cynically

"Try something" Elena said

"Like what?" he replied, obviously a slightly frustrated.

"I don't know…something you can't normally do"

He raised his eyebrows at her and tilted his head to the side with an odd little smirk.

"When you're a vampire, you get stronger with age so there's probably not a whole not that Damon can't do" Bonnie said, sounding a little disappointed

"There must be something" Elena said hopefully

"I can lift up a car with one hand and hear a pin drop a mile away" he told her wryly

"Oh…"

"But you said you feel stronger around me?" he asked Elena.

"Yeah, I do. Do you remember when we were practicing with the knives last week and you were so impressed at how far I could throw them?"

"Uh-huh"

"Well I tried it again the next day without you and I could still throw them pretty far but it wasn't even close to what I could do with you there. I honestly didn't think much of it until I found out about the bond but now that I look back, there are a few instances like that."

He looked at her curiously "Try something for me?"

"Of course" the words popped out of her mouth before she even thought about them and it irked her just a tiny bit. She wasn't worried that he would ask her to do something she didn't want to do but she also wasn't the kind of person who just blindly agreed to things without questioning them.

"Close your eyes and listen"

She did as he said "What am I listening for?"

"Anything. Stretch your senses out and tell me what you hear"

Taking a moment to relax, she reached out with her hearing

"I can hear…someone walking in the front of the house"

"Who is it?" he asked

"I don't know" she replied, brows furrowed

"Yes you do. Who's footsteps are they?" he encouraged.

Elena focused on the _crunch _of the person's feet on the ground.

"Stefan's, it's Stefan!" she cried happily.

"Yes it is and he's not in front of the house. He's about three miles away"

"Really?" she said, impressed with herself.

"Yep and you, my little newbie vamp, should not be able to hear that" he sounded pleased.

Elena grinned stupidly at him before leaning down to kiss him hard on the mouth. Ever since Caroline had told her she was basically at Damon's mercy, she'd felt frail and a little sorry for herself. Now she felt empowered. The bond still made her nervous but it wasn't going to turn her into some pitiable creature that followed her boyfriend around like an obedient puppy. If they worked together, it could make them stronger.

"We're going to be ok" she whispered to him.

"Yes, we are" he whispered back.

"This is awesome" Bonnie said to no one and Elena looked up to see her lighting and extinguishing the flame in her hand.

Elena laughed "Hey weren't you cooking something?"

Bonnie glanced over at her "What?"

"The pizza?" Elena reminded her.

"Oh! Damnit! Shit!" she yelled and raced off.

"I should probably go help her" Damon stood up and held his hand out to Elena "Wanna drink wine and watch us cook?"

"So long as I get to be the taste tester"

Stefan opened the front door and walked into the room.

"Did someone say taste tester? I'm starving" he asked.

"Nope. You must be hearing things" Elena said with a sly grin

"Liar" he accused.

She made a scoffing sound "Fine, fine. I'll share. But only because my dad killed you"

He laughed "Hey, I'll play that card as long as I can"

"Just remember you'd still be dead if it weren't for me" she said with mock arrogance

"Yeah but only because my brother kidnapped you"

She laughed and grabbed Damon's hand.

"It's really fucking weird that you two tease each other about that" Damon told them.

They both shrugged. She and Stefan had agreed it was incredibly awkward that her father had killed him and then her blood had brought him back to life so they had decided to take it with a grain of salt. If they joked about it, then it was far less uncomfortable when it came up. Once they were in the kitchen, they filled Stefan in on their discoveries.

"Not to put a damper on the excitement but I have a…concern" Stefan told them.

"Of course you do, Debbie Downer" Damon said with an eye roll.

"Shut up, Damon" Stefan said before turning to the witch who was currently slicing mushrooms "I'm sorry Bonnie, but I have to ask, what about Abby?"

Bonnie pursed her lips and her jaw clenched "What about her?"

"She's still a Bennett witch, isn't she?" Stefan asked

Bonnie shrugged "I guess so"

"So what about her power? Does she still have it?"

"I don't know, Stefan" Bonnie said in a strangely aggravated tone.

"I'm sorry but that seems like an important piece of information"

"He's right, Witchy"

"Well I don't know! It's not like we talk"

Elena didn't want to upset Bonnie any more than she clearly already was but she couldn't bite her tongue any more.

"I think I'm missing something. Who is Abby?" she asked.

"She's my mother"

"Oh" Elena realized that Bonnie had never mentioned her parents before.

Bonnie slammed the knife down on the counter "She's not important. She left when I was two and never came back. I haven't seen or heard from her in 16 years"

"Is she…" she started but didn't know how to ask if her friend's mother was dead or not.

"No" Damon chimed in "I would know"

"Right" Elena said and took a long drink of her wine.

"Look" Damon grabbed Bonnie by the shoulders and forced her to look at him "I know you don't like to talk about her but she's out there and Stefan is right, she could have power."

"So what?" Bonnie said defiantly.

"So what if she's channeling all those generations, too?"

"She's not. Grams buried our ancestors in the cemetery behind the house and consecrated the ground. She abandoned her blood line so it's doubtful that she has any power at all. When a witch runs away from her coven, her power gets channeled back to the other members and in this case that would be me. So can we please forget about her and put this pizza in the oven?"

Damon narrowed his eyes at her and stared her down.

"What?!" she shouted at him "I'm telling you, she's irrelevant to us"

"Ok, but if you're wrong I'm kicking you out of my kitchen for a month"

Bonnie's faltered for a moment but recovered quickly "I'm not wrong"

"Famous last words" Stefan told her.

Bonnie turned and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Where are Caroline and Klaus?" Elena asked, changing the subject for Bonnie.

"Klaus took her to dinner in Paris or someplace to make up for yesterday" Stefan said

"Lucky Caroline" Elena muttered under her breath.

"Quit pouting." Damon told her "When I make it up to you, you'll forget all about Paris" he added suggestively.

She raised an eyebrow and smiled at him "Oh?"

He grinned lewdly at her "Mmm-hmmm"

They stared at each other for a long moment before Bonnie interjected uneasily.

"Ahh I think the pizza is done"

"Thank God" Stefan said.

Elena tore her gaze from Damon's reluctantly and got up from her seat to gather plates. The three of them sat around the kitchen, munching on pizza, and drinking wine. Eventually Damon and Stefan switched to bourbon and Bonnie cajoled them into telling her more about her great grandmother. Damon was halfway through telling Bonnie about a time when he and Amelia had caught her Grams trying to sneak out of the house at 14 when it occurred to her that they had known one of her family members very well, too.

"Um, Damon?" she asked a timidly

"Yeah?" he asked on a half laugh

"What was my mom like?"

The question had obviously caught him off guard but he thought about it for a several minutes before answering.

"Smart, like you. Beautiful but not as beautiful as you are, and I mean that sincerely. She was intense and a little dark at times, which probably why we got along so well. But she could be lighthearted, too. She liked to laugh and dance. Once she'd turned and she confessed who she was, she talked about you a lot. She wanted to see you but John wouldn't let her."

"Isobel would have been proud of you, Elena" Stefan added.

"Definitely" Damon agreed.

"She wanted to see me?" It was the first time anyone had told her that. She'd always just assumed that her mother had left to become a vampire and never looked back.

"Of course she did" Stefan said sounding surprised.

"No one has ever told me anything about her or my dad" she said sadly.

"You know, I don't think I ever realized that we're both orphans" Bonnie remarked, her voice heavy with empathy.

"Tell you what, how about we move this little party to the living room and you can both ask Stef and I as many questions about your respective relatives as you want" Damon offered.

"Really?" she and Bonnie said in unison.

He picked up his tumbler and inclined his head toward the other room "Yep, c'mon"

They sat in the living room for hours asking questions and listening to stories. Neither Stefan nor Damon knew much about her father but she'd learned more about her mother in one afternoon than she had in her entire life. Isobel's favorite books were Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, she loved jazz music, and she spoke three languages.

"Do you think she would have liked me?" Elena asked after Stefan had gone to write in his journal and Bonnie went home to catch up on sleep.

"Oh baby, she would have _loved_ you" he told her vehemently.

"You really think so?" she said as she stood next to the fireplace and ran her fingers anxiously over the ornate mantle.

"I know so. Isobel was a selfish creature, she did what she did because it was what she wanted, but I know she regretted leaving you, Elena. She wanted to know you."

She nodded and fought the tears that were threatening to spring up "Thank you so much, you and Stefan both. I can't tell you how much it meant to me to hear someone talk about her."

"You're welcome. I wish you could have known her."

"Me too"

"So…will you be staying here tonight?" Damon asked, gazing coolly at her from across the room

After the dream last night, just the thought of being in his bed sent a thrill down her spine.

"Yeah" she said breathlessly "I mean, as long as it's ok with you"

"Of course" he replied and a second later he was in front of her, staring down at her with that piercing gaze "this is your home, Elena."

"I know and there's nowhere I'd rather be but, you have to admit, this is a weird situation"

His hand reached up and cupped her face "You know that I would never make you do anything you didn't want to do, don't you?"

Leaning her cheek into his palm, she sighed contentedly at the contact

"I do and I trust you but that dream last night…it was…intense and a little scary"

"Scary?" he dropped his hand, looking hurt and she instantly regretted using the word.

"I wasn't in the afraid in the dream. Actually I was the opposite of afraid, I was completely at ease. And that's what scared me a little when I woke up. I would have done _anything _you asked me to, Damon. Honestly, I think with or without the bond there's not much you couldn't talk me into in bed but you didn't have to talk me into anything. I never hesitated for a second and I guess it was the first time it dawned on me what that part of the bond really means."

"Did anything happen in the dream that you didn't like?"

"That's not the point!" she cried, exasperated.

"What I mean is, were you ok with the things we were doing because you liked them or because I asked you to do them?"

"I…I don't know…" and she really didn't "It was your dream and I'm confused about how much of it was me and how much of it was you, or if it was us but just in a dream"

"I think you're overthinking it"

"So what do I do?" she said miserably

"What do I ask you every time you ask me that question?"

"What do I want to do?"

"Yes, Elena. What do _you _want?"

She tilted her head up and stared into the clear blue pools of his eyes and knew exactly what she wanted to do.

"Kiss me. I want you to kiss me" she said with a tiny bit more neediness in her voice than she would have liked. The only thing she'd wanted all day was to be near him, to touch him, and right at this very moment, she didn't care about Sire Bonds or Blood Bonds.

To her relief and delight, he closed the distance between them and covered her mouth his with. It felt like she'd been dying and his tongue sweeping over hers was slowly bringing her back to life. Damon's arms slid around her to pull her closer and she buried her fingers in the dark hair at the nape of his neck. His hands roamed over her backside and he ground his arousal against her.

Gasping, she pulled away from the kiss "Upstairs. We should go upstairs"

"Why?" he said absently as he brushed his fingers through her hair and down her neck.

She forced herself to think for just a moment longer "Other people live here"

"Mmm" he placed feather light kisses on her jaw "remind me to kick everyone out first thing in the morning"

Elena could feel herself melting as his thumbs traced the skin above the top of her jeans "Damon…"

"Ok, ok" he said, unhappily giving in and lifting her into his arms.

Before she could blink twice, he was dropping her on his bed and bracing himself above her on his forearms. The way he looked at her made her heart stutter. It was predatory, fiery hot, and it paralyzed her every time. The first time she'd seen it, just before he'd kidnapped her, she'd been terrified. Now, here beneath him as he licked his lips and devoured her with his eyes, she'd never felt safer.

Elena reached up to run her thumb over his bottom lip "I love you, Damon"

His gaze softened just a fraction "I love you too, Elena"

He dipped his head down to kiss her slowly. His tongue mated gently with hers and she moaned appreciatively against his mouth. Their clothes were gone in a matter of minutes and Damon's hands were working their magic over her skin. She ran her fingers over the sculpted muscles of his shoulders, her nails biting down when he hit a particularly sensitive spot. She hummed in pleasure as his knee pressed her legs apart and he rested his lean hips on hers. The tip of his erection was millimeters away from her center but when she tried to arch into him, he shifted away from her and she let out a little mewl of disappointment. Suddenly his hands were gone and he was dragging her arms up so he had them pinned on either side of her head. He laced their fingers as he licked and nipped his way down her neck.

"I can't lie to you" he whispered against her skin "it turns me on that you're _mine, _Elena"

Involuntarily she bit her lower lip and her body trembled at his words. He lifted his probing blue gaze up to meet her eyes and she knew she couldn't lie to him either.

"It turns me on, too" she said in a tiny voice.

"I thought it scared you" he said seriously, drawing himself up so he could look down at her.

"It scares me that it turns me on" she said "but I don't want to be afraid and I think to let go of the fear, I have to give into it somehow. You have no idea what it's like, wanting to completely lose myself in you, to let my feelings for you consume me. But if I do that, I'll become someone I'm not. I don't want that and I don't think you do either. So in here, when it's just us, that's when I can let go. I can be yours; mind, body, and soul."

"I don't think you know what you're saying" he was gripping her hands tighter and she could hear his breath hitch.

She squeezed her fingers around his and met his eyes "Yes I do, Damon. Out there, I'm a girlfriend, a friend, a vampire. In here, or wherever the clothes come off, I belong to _you_. We can't ignore the bond or the way it makes us feel. I need to give myself over to this and I know you do, too. If we don't, we'll lose our minds trying to deny it."

"**Y**ou're right" he told her for the second time in one day, but he realized what she was saying was true. Trying to pretend the part of him that wanted her submission didn't exist was like trying to pretend he wasn't a vampire. It was impossible and it would drive them insane. He let go of her hands and trailed his fingers down to lightly fondle her breasts.

"I'm curious though…" he murmured "how strong is the hold?"

"What do you mean?" she asked and gasped as his mouth closed over her nipple. As he knew they would, her fingers wound their way around his neck to pull him closer.

Pulling his lips away from her skin, he stared intently into her warm brown eyes "Put your hands on the headboard and don't move"

Her eyes lit up with defiance for the briefest of moments before she obediently stretched her arms over her head and placed her palms on the headboard.

"Can you move?" he asked his voice hoarse as he ran his hands over her prone body.

"Yes and no. It's hard to explain. I think I could move if I had to so it's not like compulsion. It's just an overwhelming urge to make you happy, to please you."

Damon tried to hide his excitement. He could only imagine how hard it must be for her relinquish control and he swore that sometime in the very near future, he would let her do anything she wanted to him. But tonight, she was his and he planned on taking full advantage of their strange circumstances.

"You're sure about this?" he asked, giving her one last chance to change her mind "I'm not going to hold back, Elena."

"Absolutely" she told him, her voice steady "Whatever you want. I'm all yours, Damon"

"Then I want you to stay just like that, don't move and try your hardest not to make any sound" he told her firmly.

This side of him, the dark side that she'd barely glimpsed, wanted to torment her, to drive her crazy with need until she couldn't take it anymore. She swallowed nervously but nodded and he let the demon in him take over. Sitting up, he moved his legs to straddle her hips so she was trapped by his weight. Lazily, he let the tips of his fingers travel from her wrists all the way down to her core and then back up. Elena whimpered quietly but stayed completely still and he smiled wickedly down at her. There was something more primal than desire was coursing through his veins and his entire being was vibrating with it. He moved to hover over her again and gripped her wrists forcefully with one hand, relishing in the control he had over her. At first he peppered her neck and collarbone with soft kisses, whispering that he loved her and telling her how beautiful she was. Then, when her eyes closed and a sensual smile touched her lips, he let his fangs drop and bit into the delicate skin of her throat. She let out a tiny cry of surprise and pain as he sucked hungrily at the wound. Pulling away from her neck, he watched her face while he dropped his free hand down between her legs to slip his fingers into her damp folds and he felt her body relax. He pressed his thumb against the bud at her apex as he quickly pumped two fingers in and out of her and he felt her start to shake with the effort not to move. Her breath was coming out in frantic pants and just as she was about to topple over the edge of an epic orgasm, he withdrew his hand. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes burned angrily into his but she remained silent and motionless. Letting go of her wrists, he went back to his tender caresses and pressing sweet kisses over every inch of her skin. He came back up and to capture her mouth in an unhurried kiss as he palmed her breasts, gently rolling the rosy peaks between his thumb and forefinger. When he felt her melting under him, he trailed his lips down to replace his hands. She let out a hum of pleasure and he sunk his razor sharp teeth into the soft flesh of her chest. There was a strangled cry accompanied by a strange scraping sound and he glanced up to see her digging her nails into the headboard hard enough to leave scratches in the wood. Her whole body was visibly trembling and there was a tiny dot of blood on her lips from where she'd been chewing manically at it. He paused to drink in the sight of her stretched out naked and half crazed with desire. If he pushed this much further, they were both going to lose it. He nuzzled her neck, lightly scratching his fangs across the vein that was pulsing wildly beneath the surface of her skin.

"Beg" he whispered hotly against her ear.

**F**renzied pleas poured from her lips while her brain tried to decide what she wanted more; to move or come.

"Please…oh God…I…Damon, I need…I just…I want…" Elena felt like she was one quaking mass of need and she couldn't form a coherent thought, let alone a complete sentence.

"You can move now, Elena" he told her with a demonic grin, clearly enjoying every second of her suffering.

Relief washed through her and her limbs instantly wrapped around him to drag him close. He braced himself above her on outstretched arms, still smiling wolfishly at her. She wriggled her legs free and pushed down on his ass with her heels, shoving his hips between her thighs as she arched into him invitingly.

"_Please_, Damon" she could hear the desperation in her voice but she didn't care.

"Well since you said please…" he teased and pushed forward, filling her to the hilt in one long stroke.

"Yesss" she purred and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

He felt amazing under her hands, with his cool skin and corded muscles. She wasn't sure if she'd ever really appreciated how much she loved touching him. Her fingers seemed to have a mind of their own as they danced across his back, down his biceps, over his chest, and back up his neck to cradle his face in her palms. He gave a low rumble of approval and started moving steadily in and out of her. Their eyes locked on one another's heatedly while their bodies created a delicious friction. She was convinced nothing in the world could possibly feel as incredible as having Damon buried inside her with the motion of their bodies completely in sync. She found herself trying to memorize every stroke, every touch. Elena could feel their connection growing more intense with each passing moment. With every kiss, every touch, it was weaving its magic through their minds, under their skin, and into their hearts. She'd never felt so alive, so aware, and she felt like she might burst at any moment.

"Damon" she breathed "I'm going to come"

"Not yet" he demanded "just hold on a little longer"

Her body screamed '_No!' _but she was helpless to deny him. His thrusts got faster and he changed the angle of his hips to hit the sweet spot deep inside her over and over.

"Please" she begged "please let me…I can't…"

"Yes, right now" he told her "come with me now"

Damon started to drive into her harder and faster and she came completely undone. She vaguely heard her own voice chanting his name and crying out wildly. He had his arms locked around her, pulling her as close as he could while he crashed into her body and groaned his release. They stayed like that for a long time, their limbs tangled and their breathing labored.

"You're still shaking" he commented quietly after several minutes.

"Am I?" she held up her trembling hand to examine it "I guess I am. I think you might have fried a circuit in my brain or something"

He chuckled and rested his forehead against hers "You can't say I didn't warn you"

Elena smiled up at him "Yes, you did"

"Seriously though, are you ok?" he looked a little concerned and he gripped her hand in his.

"I'm fantastic. I don't think I've ever felt so great"

"Good. Me either" he rolled onto his side and pulled her back against his chest.

"You are _so _mean, though. I knew you were bad but…wow." she smiled to herself and snuggled into him.

"Would you like me better if I was nice?" he asked,

"No. You're perfect just the way you are" she told him seriously "and you can be mean to me anytime you want" she added with a giggle.

"So, still wanna go to Paris?" he asked.

"I don't know…I've never been to Paris" she teased.

"Hmmm, I guess I'll have to fly you to France and do it all over again" he murmured against her neck.

"Sounds like a plan to me" she said, fighting to keep her eyes open. Suddenly she was exhausted.

"Love you, 'Lena" he said sleepily and cuddled her closer to him.

"Love you too, Damon" she mumbled and fell asleep in his arms.

**Hello lovely readers,**

**I'm going to take a break from this story for a while. I'm not getting much in the way of feedback and I'm not feeling terribly inspired. If you're reading this - THANK YOU! Even if you don't love the story, thank you for taking the time to read it. Hopefully the muse strikes again soon and I can give this story the conclusion it deserves. To all those who reviewed, fav'd, and followed, you are all amazing and I can't begin to tell you how much it means to me that you enjoy my writing. I'm so sorry if I'm leaving you hanging but I'm not getting a whole lot of love and I'm just not feeling it at the moment. **

**xoxo **


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm baaaack! I tried really hard to throw myself into this chapter and make it great. I really hope you all like it. I don't think I say this enough – THANK YOU to every single person who takes the time to read my stories. Your support does not go unnoticed. Every fav, follow, and review inspires me to continue writing. (Special thank you to the reviewers who asked me to keep going with this story – you made me smile and motivated me to write the next two chapters)**

**xoxo**

**Chapter 6**

**B**onnie sat on the floor of the parlor with Caroline and Elena and shoved yet another book to the side with a sigh. The three of them were surrounded by grimoires and supernatural reference books. Caroline was flipping through pages without really looking at them and Elena was poring over every word as though her life depended on it.

"This is hopeless" Caroline said and slammed the cover of her book closed.

"Nothing is hopeless" Bonnie said firmly.

"I love your optimism Bon-Bon but we've been through a million of these books and there's nothing about a super powered locater spell" Caroline said dryly.

Elena looked up from her book "You just want to give up? Let Damon and Klaus kill another couple dozen people?" she asked with a touch of anger.

"No" Caroline muttered and picked up another book.

Bonnie was about to grab another grimoire when she felt it. It was like a pulse that shoved at her whole body. With a frown, she got to her feet and looked around.

"I think someone is here" she said on instinct and felt the odd pulse again. This time she felt the spell that covered the house waver for the briefest of seconds. "I think it's a witch trying to break the cloaking spell"

Both Elena and Caroline stopped what they were doing and Bonnie could tell they were listening for any out of place sounds in the house.

"They're outside" Caroline said nervously.

"Damon!" Elena shouted.

Bonnie made her way to the window and peered out. Sure enough, there was a woman standing on the lawn staring intently at the house. There was another push of power and Bonnie took a step back.

"You really don't have to shout, Elena" Damon's voice came from behind her.

"Sorry" she said "but there's someone outside and Bonnie thinks it's a witch."

Klaus had followed Damon into the room and he came to stand next to Bonnie at the window.

"Can she see us?" he asked.

"No" she replied confidently.

"You're sure?"

"Yes. The spell is intact. Supernatural beings can't see the house without our permission. She's trying though. I can feel her trying to push through it."

"I'll take care of it" he said calmly and headed for the front door.

"What are you going to do?" Caroline demanded and leapt to her feet.

"I'm going to kill her" he said as though it should have been obvious.

"No!" Caroline yelled.

He looked at her dubiously "Why on earth not?"

"Because we're trying _not _tokill everyone, remember?"

"She's not everyone. She's one very stupid witch"

"You don't have to kill her" Bonnie said, a secret smile creeping over her face "I'll make sure she knows she's not welcome"

Damon was here and now that she knew what to focus on she could sense the power coursing through her veins like liquid electricity. Drawing on the boost from Damon, she let the magic sizzle in her blood until she felt like a jack-in-the box ready to pop open. Raising her hands, she closed her eyes and shoved forward with everything she had. She opened her eyes just in time to see the woman fly backwards 100 yards and land on her face. The woman had pushed herself to her feet and was making her way determinedly back toward the house. _Idiot_ Bonnie thought to herself. The power was still moving through her system like lightning and the need to protect the people she loved was uncontrollable. With a snap of her fingers, a ring of fire surrounded the woman. She reached out to the woman's mind and strangely felt no fear, only confusion and curiosity. It infuriated her and Bonnie clenched her fist to tighten the fiery circle until the woman couldn't take a step in any direction without receiving third degree burns. Finally, she felt the tickle of distress seep into the woman's mind and smiled. She pulled the flames even closer until the distress turned to real terror. The woman turned in frantic circles but every time she got close to the edge of the flames, they would shoot up like a geyser.

"Hey are you trying to scare her or barbeque her?" Damon asked, an edge of concern in his words.

His voice brought her back to herself and she realized that if she didn't stop she was going to burn the woman alive. Bonnie shook her head and the flames disappeared. The woman turned and ran in the opposite direction of the house.

"What the hell was that?!" Caroline cried, waving her hands dramatically in the air.

"I…I don't know…I was so angry at her and I just wanted to protect you guys"

Never in her life had Bonnie felt that kind of anger, that kind of cruelty toward another person and it frightened her. She didn't know where it had come from. Elena put her arm around Bonnie and led her away from the window.

"I think maybe you should work on controlling the extra power" Elena told her gently and she nodded in agreement.

"That was pretty badass with the fire though" Damon said encouragingly.

"Yeah?" she said with a hopeful smile. Damon didn't use the term 'badass' lightly.

"Definitely. A little over the top but you just need to get it under control"

"I'll work on it" she promised him.

"In the meantime, how about we keep looking for a spell to find Rebekah?" Elena suggested.

"Have you tried creating your own spell, Bonnie?" Klaus asked.

"My own spell?"

"The spells in those books didn't just appear from nowhere" he said gesturing to the books scattered on the floor "A witch had to think them up"

She felt incredibly stupid for not thinking of it herself but she had no idea where to start. The task seemed daunting and she chewed at her lip uncertainly.

"I can help, if you'd like" he offered.

"What do you know about writing spells?" she asked skeptically.

"You need to brush up on your history, Witchy" Damon said leaning up against the fireplace "Klaus is a Mikaelson"

"And...?" she said, confused.

"As in Esther Mikaelson? That name ring any bells?"

"You're related to the Original Witch?" she asked Klaus, her eyes wide.

Klaus gave a hearty laugh "She was my mother"

"No!" Bonnie gawked at him.

"I'm afraid so. Original Vampires were created by their mother, the Original Witch" he told her.

"Well in that case, I would love your help" she said in awe.

Klaus slid an apologetic look toward Caroline and she crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly. Bonnie wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth but she knew then that he was helping her to get back in Caroline's good graces. He went to the blonde and touched his forehead to hers.

"Forgive me?" he murmured.

"She could have been completely innocent for you all you know. We've talked about getting the whole story before deciding someone has to die" she scolded him.

"I know, I'm a murderous bastard and I don't deserve you"

A hint of a smile played at Caroline's lips "Yes, you are and no, you don't"

"But you love me anyway" he told her.

"Yes I do" she said, giving in and wrapping her arms around him.

Klaus smiled and pulled her closer "And I love you Caroline Forbes"

Bonnie's heart ached with a pang of jealousy. She couldn't be happier for Caroline and she loved her life here but when she looked at the two of them, or Damon and Elena, she wished there was someone like that for her. She'd never been in love and living with vampires put a major damper on bringing boyfriends home.

"Bon, you ok?" Elena asked and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah! Let's do this" she said, knowing she sounded a bit too enthusiastic.

Klaus let go of Caroline and narrowed his eyes at Bonnie "I can trust you can't I, Bonnie?"

"Of course you can"

"Then I have a gift for you" he disappeared and returned a moment later with a book that looked sturdy but like it had seen better days.

He held the book out to her and she gave him an odd look "What's this?"

"It's one of my mother's grimoires. It contains a very powerful locater spell and I think it would be a good starting point for you."

She accepted the weathered volume with reverence "I can borrow it? Are you sure?"

"You can keep it" he told her kindly.

"No, I couldn't. It was your mothers" she tried to hand it back but he held up his hands in refusal.

"Your ancestor helped her write it. Ayana was my mother's best friend and Esther's magic would not have been possible without her. It's as much yours as it is mine"

"This is unbelievably nice of you. Thank you so much, Klaus"

"Think nothing of it" he said and smiled at her "Now, shall we take a look at that spell and see what we can cook up?"

"I guess we should leave you to it" Damon said and gave Caroline and Elena pointed looks.

"Yeah, ok. 'Lena, do you want to help me with the closet project?" Caroline asked.

She could practically hear Elena groan inwardly. Damon had followed through on his promise of a giant closet for Caroline and she'd been organizing it for the better part of a week.

"Sure" Elena agreed begrudgingly

"I'm going to see what Stefan is up to" Damon told Bonnie "Let me know if you need me"

Bonnie nodded absently as she carefully lifted the cover to peek at the first page.

"It's survived for a millennium. You're not going to hurt it" he assured her with a laugh.

"It just feels so old and delicate" she sat down at the table and started turning pages with more confidence.

"Old, yes, delicate, no" he told her and sat down across from her.

Klaus spent the rest of the afternoon going over the grimoire and explaining the ins and outs of spell writing and translating the locater spell. They sat at the dining room table and Bonnie tried to keep up with the translations in her notebook. He hadn't been kidding when he said it was powerful. Her brain hurt just thinking about everything involved.

"This says we need something of the person we're looking for" she said

"That's where we run into a problem"

"You don't have anything of your sister's?"

"Yes but they're just possessions. We need something that meant something to her and that's where I draw a blank"

"Maybe I can help with that" Stefan's voice came from the archway.

"You have something of Rebekah's?" Klaus asked with an edge of excitement in his voice.

"I have this" Stefan made his way over to the table and pulled a necklace from a small wooden box.

A quarter sized, round silver pendant hung from a slim chain. Simple raised designs swirled down from the top of the pendant where a tiny garnet rested.

"Where did you get that?" Klaus's voice was barely a whisper.

"She asked me to keep it safe for her before she disappeared. Will it work?"

"Yes, I should say so. May I see it?"

Stefan hesitated for a moment before placing the necklace in Klaus's outstretched hand.

Klaus ran his thumb over the pendant and a sad smile crept over his mouth.

"This too was once my mother's. She passed it on to my sister when she was just a girl and Rebekah wore it every single day. She had vaults full of priceless jewelry but none were as precious to her as this necklace. My sister must have truly loved you to entrust you with it."

"I truly loved her" Stefan's voice was far away and Bonnie could see from the look on his face that it hadn't been easy for him to turn over the necklace "It's all I have left of her. That and one very old photo"

"Thank you, Stefan" Bonnie said genuinely "this is going to help us find her"

He gave a half smile but said nothing as he turned to leave.

"Stefan?" Klaus called after him.

The green eyed vampire glanced back over his shoulder with raised eyebrows.

"We're going to find her" Klaus promised.

Glancing down at the floor, he gave a curt not and walked away. Bonnie looked back at the yellowed pages of the grimoire, her determination renewed, and squinted at the symbols. Ancient Norse was quickly becoming her least favorite language.

"Glaring at the words won't make the translation any easier" Klaus commented.

"I know but this is taking forever!" she groaned.

"Patience, little witch"

"We don't have time to be patient. That woman tried to break through the cloaking spell. What if she comes back with reinforcements? I'm not sure how many of them I can take at once. What if they break the spell before I can locate Rebekah?"

She dropped her head into her hands and dragged her fingers through her hair. The weight on her shoulders was getting heavier by the minute. She had to stay strong, had to keep everyone safe and there was a tiny voice in the back of her mind that was telling her she might not make it out of this alive. Amelia had been an incredibly powerful witch and she'd died taking down this coven. What was to say she was any stronger than her great grandmother?

"Bonnie" Klaus's stern voice barked at her.

She looked over at him hopelessly.

"You are not to do this alone. Don't make the same mistake as Amelia and die because you've convinced yourself it's the only way. I've known a Bennett witch or two in my day and you're a stubborn self-sacrificing lot" it happened so fast, she didn't even see the blur of his hand come up and grab her chin, forcing her to meet his wild gray-green eyes "so you're going to listen to me very carefully. Are you listening?"

She nodded her eyes wide with surprise. Klaus was usually very calm and collected but at this moment, his voice was like ice and she could feel his brute strength through the iron grip he had on her face. Suddenly she could see the creature that was capable of tearing bodies into tiny pieces.

"You _will_ let us help you. Damon would never forgive himself if something was to happen to you and Caroline would be utterly devastated. I can't allow you to do that to two of the handful of people that actually matter to me in this world. I like you, Bonnie. I really do. But if I get the impression you're going to do something stupid, I will lock you in that basement and force you to do the spell from there. And don't think for a moment that I would hesitate to compel everyone in this house to make that happen. Am I making myself clear?"

"Yes" Bonnie replied meekly.

"Good" he dropped his hand and turned his attention back to the book in front of them "Let's continue, shall we?"

The Hybrid's temper was legendary in the supernatural world. There were stories of entire villages being burned to ground for miniscule offences, whole families destroyed because he didn't get what he wanted from one of its members. Time and love had mellowed him but now Bonnie could see the rage that simmered just under the surface of his cool exterior. She took a long deep breath and tried to calm herself down. The tone of his voice told her he wasn't even close to bluffing about the basement threat. She didn't want to die and she promised herself that she would let her friends help her, but the voice in the back of her mind was still telling her she might not live to see next month.

They stayed up until 2 am working on the spell before Caroline demanded that Klaus come to bed. Bonnie had never been so grateful to hear her friend's high pitched whine. As much as she wanted to finish this, she was having trouble keeping her eyes open.

"You've been at this for _hours_! And just look at poor Bonnie. She's going to pass out on the table"

"We're nearly there just a few more…"

"No! You. Me. Bed. Now!"

Caroline stamped her foot and Bonnie had to suppress the snicker that bubbled up when Klaus's fist clenched and he accidently snapped the pencil he'd been using in half.

"Damnit woman!" he growled at his blonde mate.

"Don't 'damnit woman' me Nicklaus Mikaelson! You're running Bonnie ragged and I haven't seen you feed all day. You need to stop, eat something, and come to bed."

Bonnie's eyes flicked back and forth between Caroline and Klaus as they stared each other down. Delirium must've set in because she had to contain the bubble of laughter that was about to burst out of her. There was just something terribly funny about the petite blonde shouting at the thousand year old hybrid like he was a child.

"Fine" Klaus finally grumbled before turning to Bonnie "but we pick this back up first thing tomorrow morning"

"Absolutely" she said with her lips pursed, still trying to hold back the giggle.

"Is something funny?" he asked her with narrowed eyes.

"No, um I think I'm just really tired"

She caught Caroline's eye and her friend gave her a knowing smile and winked.

"Women..." he muttered before zipping away.

Bonnie mouthed _thank you_ to Caroline and plopped her head down on the table, exhausted.

"C'mon, I'll walk you home so you don't fall asleep in the back yard"

"Ok. Thanks, Care"

Caroline walked her all the way to her bedroom door before speeding back to the mansion. Once in her bed Bonnie tried to go over the spell again but sleep took her in minutes.

_The night was pitch-black as she walked out onto her porch and listened to the wind. She in inhaled the scent of the forest and let the breeze tickle it's way over her skin before realizing there was someone in the yard. She could sense their presence and her instinct was to go on the defensive but there was something strangely familiar about them. Something that told her this person wasn't here to hurt her. It felt like they were lost. _

"_Hello?" she called out _

"_Where am I?" a tired sounding male voice called back_

"_You're on the Salvatore property" _

_Reaching inside the door and flipping the porch light on, she tried to see her visitor but there was only darkness beyond the light-bulb's soft glow. _

"_Is this a dream?" the mystery person asked and his voice sounded closer. _

"_Yes, I think it is" she replied, remembering the walk home and crawling into bed "Come into the light where I can see you. I won't hurt you" _

"_What's your name?" he asked_

"_Bonnie. What's yours?" _

"_I'm Jeremy. You said your name is Bonnie?" he stepped into the light. _

_He was tall, broad shouldered, an unkempt mop of dark hair on top of his head, and chocolate brown eyes that made her gasp. She knew instantly who he was. _

"_Yes, I did. How did you get here?" she asked urgently, unsure of how long the 'dream' would last._

"_I had a dream last night…a woman gave me some herbs and told me if I made tea with them they would lead me to my true identity. When I woke up, the herbs were in my hand" _

"_A strange dream woman gave you herbs and you just took them?" she asked doubtfully. _

"_Well…yeah" he said sounding a little insulted "she said I would meet you and to tell you Grams sent me" _

_Suspicion flooded her at the mention of her Grams. This was another dream from the witches. They were trying to distract her, throw her off her game. _

"_You're lying" she accused. _

"_She said you would say that and to tell you that Ms. Cuddles is in the toy-box in the attic" _

_Bonnie gaped at him in disbelief. No one but Grams and Damon knew about Ms. Cuddles. Grams had told her that Ms. Cuddles was 'lost' years ago and she'd cried for days. Apparently Grams just thought it was inappropriate for a 13 year old girl to carry a teddy bear around all the time. _

"_You're really him" she stared at him with newfound curiosity. _

"_I'm really who?" _

"_Jeremy Gilbert" _

"_How do you know my last name?" _

"_Where are you? I mean, where did you fall asleep?" _

"_My house…what's going on?" _

"_Did Grams say anything else?" she prodded without answering his question. _

"_She said you need my help. Look, can you please tell me what the hell is happening? This is starting to freak me out"_

"_I'm going to find you, Jeremy. There's too much to explain here. Just remember that this really happened when you wake up, ok? My name is Bonnie Bennett."_

Her eyes popped open and she was back in her bed.

"Holy shit" she whispered into the dark.

**F**ew things made Elena happier than watching her man cook for her. Food was a major part of their love story and every time she sat and watched him move around his kitchen, she could swear she fell just a little deeper in love with him. The first meal they'd shared seemed like a lifetime ago. He'd been drunk, angry, and terrifying. Even then, she'd been attracted to him. From the moment they met, she'd known he was more man than monster and she'd wanted so badly to know him. Now that she did, he was everything she never knew she wanted and more.

The back door opening disrupted her sappy reflections and she looked over to see Bonnie poke her head in.

"Oh good, you're not naked" she teased.

Elena rolled her eyes and laughed "One time, _one time_, and we weren't even naked!"

"Close enough" Bonnie scoffed.

"Jealous?" Damon said with his signature smirk

Bonnie smacked his arm and he glared at her.

"I'm glad you're both here. I need to talk to you guys about a really weird dream I had last night."

"More of you getting killed?" Damon asked.

"No…I'm not actually even sure this was a dream. I think my Grams is trying to help us from the Other Side"

Elena furrowed her brows "Why do you think that?"

Bonnie was giving her the strangest look and she touched her nose self-consciously "What? Do I have something on my face?"

"No. It's just…well she sent someone to meet me in the dream and at first I thought it was a trick but then he told me where to find Ms. Cuddles and what do you know, she was exactly where he said she would be. He couldn't know that unless Grams told him, plus he seemed really confused, so I'm pretty much convinced he was for real."

"Um…" Elena tried to think of a question to ask but whatever had just rattled out of Bonnie's mouth made so little sense she didn't even know where to start "Was I supposed to understand any of that?"

"Please tell me you're not going to start carrying that stupid bear around again" Damon moaned.

"I'm not a little kid anymore, Damon. She's on my bed and that's where she's going to stay" Bonnie said defensively.

"I'm so confused" Elena said and took another sip of her coffee, thinking maybe she just didn't have enough caffeine in her system.

"Ms. Cuddles was my teddy bear when I was little but I lost her when I was 13. The person I met in the dream told me where to find her. Only Grams and Damon knew about Ms. Cuddles and how upset I was when she was 'lost'."

"Why do I feel like you're avoiding telling us who the person is?" Elena said suspiciously

Bonnie was giving her that odd look again and Elena had to resist the urge to shake her friend. It was too early and she was hungry.

"Spit it out, Witchy" Damon chimed in.

"It was Jeremy Gilbert" Bonnie said it so fast it took Elena a moment to realize what she'd said.

"As in my cousin Jeremy Gilbert?"

She'd been thinking about the family she'd never met a lot lately and it had broken her heart to hear that they thought she was dead. It was totally irrational since it was just a dream, but she was envious that her friend had gotten to meet her cousin when she never would.

"Yes" Bonnie said hesitantly

"Why would your Grams send him?" she asked, trying to keep her composure.

"I don't know. He said she told him that we need him."

"He's only 16, Bonnie. I don't want him involved in all of this" Elena suddenly felt the need to protect the boy she had no memory of.

"But I told him I would find him and if Grams says we need him, then we do" Bonnie's voice was anxious and her eyes looked frantic.

Elena shook her head vehemently "Even if we could find him, Uncle Grayson is never going to let him help us"

"Let me worry about finding him and dealing with your uncle" Damon had stopped cooking and he had that look on his face like he was planning something.

"No, Damon. He's just a kid and he doesn't know anything about this world. Doesn't he deserve the same chance that you wanted me to have? To be normal?"

"Does he deserve to be lied to? Don't you want to meet him? Don't you want him to know you're not dead?" he asked.

He was manipulating her and she knew it but his questions hit home. She _did _want to meet this boy that she should have grown up with and she didn't want him to go through life thinking she was dead.

"He's your family, Elena. If you don't want to involve him, then we won't" Bonnie told her gently "but he could be the final piece of the puzzle for us. I don't know what his part in this is but my Grams wouldn't have sent him to me if she didn't have a good reason"

Conflicting emotions wove their way through her mind and she felt tears behind her eyes. It took everything she had to fight them back. _Get it together, Elena_ she reprimanded herself. Before becoming a vampire, she had been what her uncle called a 'thinker'. Someone who thought everything through before doing it, but these days she felt like a ridiculous emotional female. She had to force herself to focus on a situation and remember what it was to be a rational person. Pushing the emotions to the side, she weighed the options and possible outcomes. Jeremy could get hurt. Or worse end up like her with no chance to be human. On the other hand, he was in the same boat she had been. Uncle Grayson had lied to him the same way he had lied to her and she couldn't forget the white hot anger that had come with the truth. He deserved to know the truth. With a heavy heart, she made her decision.

"Let's find him. But I want to be there, I want him to meet me first"

Damon gave a quick nod "Give me an hour"

"An hour? That's it?" she asked, surprised that he could locate him that quickly.

He chuckled at her "Honey when I decided to find you, it took me about 30 minutes to get your address"

"Well I guess I should get ready to go" she said, feeling wildly unprepared.

"I should be there, too. He knows my face" Bonnie said.

"You're not going anywhere until we finish this spell" Klaus's voice came from down the hall and a moment later he was in the kitchen staring Bonnie down.

"But he's expecting me" she whined and looked to Elena for support.

"I have some pictures of us on my phone. I can show them to him and he'll know we're friends" Elena offered.

Truthfully, she just wanted it to be her and Damon so that she could do the talking. Jeremy was family and she wanted it to come from her and her alone. Though she was sure he would interject with his special brand of sarcastic commentary, Elena knew that Damon would let her explain everything while he drove.

"Ok" Bonnie agreed reluctantly.

"Go get dressed, Elena. I'll have an address by the time you're done" Damon told her and walked out of the kitchen with his phone already up to his ear.

An hour later the two of them were cruising down the highway in his baby blue Camaro. Damon had acquired both Jeremy's home address and where he went to high school. It was early so they decided to go to the school first and see if they could catch him before her aunt and uncle realized what was going on. Damon had helped Elena hunt down a photo of him online so they would know what he looked like and his face was now burned into her mind. Jeremy was tall like his dad but his eyes and hair were dark like Elena's. She couldn't stop wondering what he would be like. Did he have a girlfriend? Was he a good student? Did he play sports?

"I can hear you thinking from over here" Damon quipped.

"You can hear me thinking?" she asked with a smile.

"Yep, I can actually hear the wheels turning in there. Anything you want to get off your chest?"

She shrugged and said nothing. He reached over and took her hand in his.

"Nervous?"

"What if he's afraid of us?"

"Then we'll compel him"

"Damon…" she said and gave him a dark look.

"Don't give me that face. If he freaks out, I'm going to compel him to forget the whole thing ever happened."

She wanted to disagree but she couldn't think of a good argument. He kind of had a point. She chewed at her lip and silently hoped he wouldn't freak out.

"Hey" he said quietly and squeezed her hand "it's going to be ok. He'll be fine, he's a Gilbert. If I remember correctly, you handled it pretty well"

"You almost bit me and I cried"

"Is that how you remember it? Because I remember a girl who was too brave and stubborn to scream or run from me, even when her heart was about to pound out of her chest"

Elena smiled at him gratefully. He always knew how to make her feel better when she was uneasy or scared. Somehow he always said the right thing. Taking a deep breath, she gripped his hand and tried to think positive. The drive took several hours but before she knew it they were across the street from the school and the last bell was mere minutes away. The knots coiled up in her stomach again as she stared at the door of the school. Damon's hand appeared in front of her face with a large thermos and she instantly smelled the blood inside.

"You're panicking. You need to eat something" he told her

She nodded and took a long drink of the blood "Thanks, I did need that"

"I know" he said and inclined his head toward the school "Bell's about to ring"

A second later, the screech of the bell sounded and she got out of the car. Fortunately, she looked young enough to be a high school student so she made her way across the street and stood near the front door. Damon was watching for Grayson or Miranda but she figured a 16 year old boy wouldn't want his parents picking him up. He would ride the bus or maybe even have his own car. Just as it looked like the last kid had walked out of the building and she was about to give up, he walked out the door. The words got caught in her throat when she saw him but then Damon's voice was cutting through the noise of kids and buses to reassure her.

"_Calm down. You can do this. Just get him to talk to you"_ he said from the car, his voice sounding like a strange sort of echo in her ears with the vampire hearing.

Squaring her shoulders she followed after him "Jeremy?"

**Author's note: I don't normally list a soundtrack because I'm so all over the place with my music but this and the next chapter were (for whatever reason) written with Lo-Fang's Blue Film album on repeat. **


	7. Chapter 7

**These last two chapters flowed really well but now I'm kind of stuck so don't get all excited about the quick update ;-) As ever, THANK YOU if you are reading this story. You're amazing. Truly. **

**A very special ****thank you**** to Lia and the Guest Reviewer – this one is dedicated to both of you for being awesome. **

**xoxo**

**Chapter 7 **

He whirled around to face her and then looked about to see who had said his name.

"Where you talking to me?" he asked as his dark eyes landed on her.

"Yep" she said and waited, her hands stuffed in her pockets.

"Do I know you?" he stepped closer to her "You look familiar"

"I'm a friend of Bonnie's" she pulled her phone from her pocket and navigated to her photos.

"Bonnie Bennett?" he sounded excited.

Excited was good. Excited was better than afraid.

"That's the one" she said and held up her phone so he could see the picture of them smiling together.

"She said she would find me. Why isn't she here?" he sounded disappointed.

"She…had something urgent to take care of. But she sent me to meet you and see if maybe you want to help us."

"Help you do what?"

"It's a really long story. Are you up for a road trip? Bonnie is at our house in Virginia. I can take you there now"

"My parents will freak out" he said uncertainly.

"I…I know your dad and you're right, he'll freak out but I can handle him. Trust me, he owes me one."

"How do you know my dad?"

"Another really long story and I swear I'll explain but you would have to come with us. You don't have to, though. I know this is completely weird and you don't even know me. You can go home and forget this ever happened. I would totally understand."

She was terrified he would turn her down. Really though, how could she expect him to just get in a car with a strange girl who claimed to know his father? It went against everything they drill into you when you're a little kid. Elena had all but convinced herself that he would definitely walk away and she would never know him when she saw the spark in his eyes. It was the same twinkle she got in her eyes when she was about to do something reckless. She tried not to smile.

"Who is 'us'? You said Bonnie was in Virginia"

"It's me and my boyfriend, Damon. He's across the street in the blue car."

"Is this…safe?" he asked but she could tell he'd already made up his mind to come with them.

"Honestly, no. But I promise I'll protect you"

Jeremy smiled at her "You'll protect me?" he said skeptically

"I'm stronger than I look" she said and smiled back.

"Ok, I'll go with you" he sounded like he was surprised at his own words.

Relief and anxiety flooded her at the same time. Uncle Grayson was going to be so mad but she swore to herself she wasn't going to let anything bad happen to him. Once they got Jeremy to the house, there wasn't anything her uncle could do about it anyway.

"That's your boyfriend?" Jeremy asked and inclined his head toward Damon, who was now leaning against the car with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Yes" she said, realizing how intimidating he looked with his leather jacket and his steely blue gaze.

"He's kind of scary looking"

"Damon is…well actually he is a little bit scary sometimes but his heart is in the right place"

When they got to the car Damon held out his hand "Damon Salvatore. You must be Jeremy"

"Yep, that's me" he shook Damon's hand and Elena saw Jeremy wince as Damon gripped his hand just a little too hard.

Damon smiled thinly and opened his door "Ready to go?"

Jeremy nodded and ducked into the back seat quickly as Elena went around to the other side and hopped into the passenger seat. Once they were a few miles up the road and about to get onto the highway, Damon broke the awkward silence.

"You look like a man with questions, Jeremy"

"Yeah but I can't decide what to ask first" he told them.

"How about I tell you how I know your dad?" she asked.

"Sure, that sounds like a good place to start"

"Has he ever mentioned a niece to you?"

"Uh-huh. Her name was Elena. She died in a fire. I didn't know her though"

"No she didn't and you know her now"

"What?" he said, his expression puzzled.

She turned to face him "I'm her. I'm Elena Gilbert"

"I don't understand. Why would he lie about you being dead?"

"Because that's what Grayson does best" Damon remarked.

Elena shot him a dirty look "Be nice"

"You don't like me when I'm nice" he told her with a lecherous grin.

She rolled her eyes and shook her head at him "Just ignore him. He thinks he's funny. Anyway…um…I'm trying to think of the best way to say this."

Damon opened his mouth but before he could say anything she covered it with her hand.

"Don't you dare" she hissed at him, knowing he was just going to blurt it out.

"Hey, it's cool. If it's a secret or something you can trust me"

Damon snickered and she threw him another angry look.

"He lied because the truth is…farfetched so just keep an open mind, ok?" she said, trying to soften the blow.

"Ok…"

"Um…shit…I'm just going to say this and you're just going to have to try not to freak out. Damon and I are vampires. So technically I am dead but not dead, dead."

"I'm sorry, did you say 'vampires'?" he asked with a laugh.

"Trust me. It's not a joke" Damon said seriously.

"I'm going to show you but I swear I'm not going to hurt you" she told him.

"Alrighty" he said, obviously still under the impression this was some kind of prank.

She sighed and let her face change. The blood rushed to her cheeks and swirled under her skin as her fangs dropped down. She bared her teeth at Jeremy as non-threateningly as she could and waited for his reaction.

"Holy shit! Holy shit!" he backed into the corner of the seat away from her, eyes wide with fear.

"It's ok, it's ok. I'm not going to hurt you" she soothed and tried to reach out to him.

"Get away from me! What the fuck is this? Let me out!"

Damon yanked the car off to the side of the road and turned around to meet Jeremy's eyes.

"Calm down. You're going to finish listening to what she has to say and if you still want to leave, then you can" Damon compelled him and Jeremy relaxed instantly.

Elena told him the story of their ancestor, the original John Gilbert, and about her parents, and finally how she came to be a vampire.

"And that's pretty much it" she said and watched his face anxiously.

"So, you want me to take you home or are you coming with us?" Damon demanded.

Jeremy looked at both of them for what felt like the longest second of her life before answering

"I'm going with you. As long as you promise no one will eat me"

"I promise no one is going to lay a finger on you" she told him earnestly.

"Did my dad really kill you by accident?" he asked.

"Yeah, weird right?"

"Weird doesn't even begin to cover it. And you said we're the first non-vampire hunting Gilberts?"

"Yep" she confirmed

"Which is why you're still alive" Damon added.

"You're right. He is a little scary" Jeremy gave Damon a wary look.

"Kid, you have no idea" he said, smirking to himself.

"Stop trying to scare him" she chastised.

"So what exactly do you need from me?" Jeremy asked.

"Actually we're not sure yet. Bonnie is working on that but we're pretty much going under the assumption that her Grams sent you to us and she had a good reason" Elena replied.

"She seemed trustworthy in my dream" 

"You Gilbert kids trust _way _too easily. For future reference, don't trust supernatural creatures that kidnap you or appear randomly in dreams."

"It worked out ok for me" Elena told him.

"Yeah but you had to die to get to the ok part"

She knew it still bothered him that she'd ended up a vampire. No matter how much he loved her and was thrilled to be with her forever, she knew he still wished she'd been able to have that year of normalcy.

"Well I wouldn't change a thing and Jeremy is going to be fine, too" she said confidently.

"For what it's worth, I'm glad you're not dead and we get to know each other" Jeremy told her.

Elena beamed at him "So am I, Jeremy. I can't tell you how happy I am that you're here"

As she'd hoped, Damon drove in silence as the two of them recapped the many years that they had missed. They were only a few miles from the mansion when Jeremy's phone rang in his backpack.

He pulled it from its pocket and looked at the readout "It's my dad"

"Let me answer it" she told him.

"Are you sure, Elena?" Damon asked, sounding worried.

"No but he'll completely lose it if you answer"

"Fair enough" he agreed.

Jeremy handed her the phone and she let the vampire in her take over. She put a cold mask of indifference on and swiped the screen to answer.

"Hello, Uncle Grayson"

"Elena? Where's Jeremy?"

"He's with me."

"You took him? Elena, please don't hurt him. If you want revenge…"

"Really? Is that what you think of me now? No, I didn't take him. I need his help and he agreed to come with me of his own free will. I'm not interested in revenge and I have no intention of hurting him."

"What did you tell him?"

"The truth. About everything"

"How dare you! How could you bring him into this? He's just a boy. You know what happens to people when they find out about the supernatural world" he was using his reprimanding father tone and she clenched her fist angrily.

"Because you're lying to him just like you lied to me. He's a Gilbert, you know he's going to get dragged into it eventually. At least he gets to go into it with his eyes open. Unlike me who had to be kidnapped and killed before you finally told me the truth"

There was silence on the other end for several seconds.

"Hello?" she asked in a snarky tone Damon would be proud of.

"If anything happens to my son…"

"What? You'll kill me?" she said coldly, earning her a grin from Damon.

"Elena, please bring him home. His mother is going to be so worried"

"Then be honest with her. Tell her that he's with me and he's under the protection of a house full of non-people eating vampires and an absurdly powerful witch. He'll be home soon."

"I need to speak to Jeremy" he said desperately.

She looked over her shoulder at her cousin "He wants to talk to you"

"No way" Jeremy shook his head.

"He doesn't want to talk to you"

"Please don't be like this" he begged her.

"Don't be like what? A vampire?"

"This isn't you, Elena" her uncle said dejectedly.

"Yes, it is. This is what you made me. We'll return Jeremy safe and sound, ok? Just don't do anything stupid and get innocent people killed" she stabbed the end button and handed the device back to Jeremy.

Running her fingers through her hair she came back to herself and swallowed back the tears. Damon put his hand on her knee and she covered it with her own.

"You did great" he whispered.

"Not too cold?" she asked.

"Baby you were glacial but he deserved it"

"I'm sorry, Jeremy. I know he's your dad"

"Don't worry about it. He showed up on our doorstep a few weeks ago. I barely know the guy"

"He never even told me you existed" she said sadly.

"Seems like he's kind of a liar"

"That's putting it lightly" Damon said as they pulled into the driveway.

"This is where you live?" Jeremy asked in awe when the house came into view.

"Uh-huh. Pretty nice, huh?" she smiled, glad to have something good to show him.

"I've never even seen a house this big"

Damon got out of the car and moved the seat so Jeremy could get out and stare in wonder at the huge brick house. She looped her arm through his and pulled him to the door.

"C'mon. You can meet everyone else"

"Everyone else?"

"Yep. Bonnie, Caroline, Klaus, and Damon's brother Stefan. I think everyone is home" she told him happily, dragging him through the front door with Damon right behind them.

"Hello!" she called "We're home!"

"Kitchen!" Caroline's voice shouted back.

"Why do you have to shout? There's no reason to shout in this house." Damon complained.

"Oh I'm sorry Mr. I Have Ancient Vampire Super Hearing" she told him with a giggle.

"Did you just call me ancient?" he demanded and glowered at her.

"Maybe" she said coyly.

"You're lucky we have company" he told her darkly.

"Are you being a jerk, Damon?" Caroline asked absently as they walked into the kitchen.

"Oh, hi! I'm Caroline. You must be Elena's cousin Jeremy! It's so nice to meet you!"

The blonde blur jumped from her seat when she saw Jeremy and gave him her the welcoming smile she'd given Elena the first night she'd been here. She hoped it would have the same calming effect on Jeremy that it had her.

"It's nice to meet you, too" he said and returned her smile.

"Bonnie is in the backyard with Klaus. I have no idea what they're doing. Something about channeling. Stefan is downstairs getting us a…drink"

"It's ok Caroline, I already told him" Elena said.

"Oh good because it's pretty much impossible to hide it in this house" she said, sounding relieved "He's getting me some wine, too. You want?" she asked Elena.

"Definitely" she said and turned to Jeremy "Are you hungry? There are always leftovers in the fridge and you're welcome to them. Damon and Bonnie cook all the time"

"Um yeah sure" he said and Elena could see he felt out of place. 

"Make yourself at home" Damon told him in an uncharacteristically soft tone that was usually reserved for her.

Jeremy sat down at the island in the spot next to hers. She grabbed him a Tupperware of ravioli and put it in the microwave. The poor kid still looked incredibly uneasy and she tried to think of something to settle his nerves. Her intuition told her this was a young man who wanted to be treated like an adult and though, or maybe because, she knew her uncle would disapprove, her first thought was to give him a drink.

"Damon, could Jeremy have a bourbon with you? Just a little bit? I know you were thinking about having one"

"Corrupting him already, 'Lena?" he grinned at her.

"He's in a strange house with a bunch of vampires and he's had a weird afternoon. If I were him, I would want a drink."

"Actually that would be kind of great" Jeremy agreed.

"You got it, kid" Damon said, disappearing and reappearing seconds later with two tumblers.

"That was fast" Jeremy's eyes were wide as he accepted the glass.

Elena remembered the first time she'd seen Damon use his super speed. It had been disconcerting, but then again he'd kidnapped her only a few hours earlier.

"We can do all kinds of cool stuff" Elena told him.

"Like what?" he asked, sounding intrigued.

"Like hear you from all the way downstairs" Stefan said from the doorway.

"Hello, Jeremy. I'm Stefan. Damon's brother. The _nice_ brother" he gave Jeremy his winning smile and held out his hand.

Jeremy shook it tentatively but Elena knew Stefan wouldn't feel the need to show off strength like Damon did. One of her favorite things about Stefan was his gentle soul. It made him an amazing friend and confidant. Stefan handed a bottle of wine and a dark blue water bottle to Caroline. He sipped from an identical water bottle and held it out to Elena. She was tempted but she'd already had her quota of blood bags today.

"No, I'm good. Thanks, though"

He put the cap back on "I'll leave it in the fridge if you want it later"

She smiled gratefully at him and set the bowl of food in front of Jeremy.

"What are they doing out there?" Stefan asked worriedly, peeking out the window.

Elena stood next to him and peered out. Klaus was yelling at Bonnie and Bonnie was yelling back. Klaus said something and Bonnie's face went dark before Klaus grabbed his head and dropped to the ground. She and Stefan jerked back and looked at one another with mirrored 'yikes' expressions.

"We'll just let them work that out" he told her.

"I'm sure they'll be fine" she agreed and went back to sit next to Jeremy.

Jeremy forked a ravioli into his mouth and looked surprised "This is really good"

"Thanks" Damon said.

"Is cooking a vampire super power, too?" Jeremy joked.

"Elena wishes" Damon told him.

"Shut up" she said but a smile played at her lips.

The door opened and Bonnie stepped inside with Klaus close behind her.

"God, finally! I thought you were going to be out there all night" Caroline whined.

"Hello to you too, darling" Klaus said, sounding frustrated.

"Jeremy?" Bonnie said breathlessly.

He looked up from his food and a huge smile spread across his face "Bonnie!"

"It's so good to meet you!" she said and crossed the room to sit on the other side of him "I mean, the real you. Not the dream you."

"It's good to meet the real you, too" he said enthusiastically.

Elena thought she saw something there but she decided not to say anything. If it was there, they would figure it out. She accepted a glass of wine from Caroline and exchanged a knowing smile with her.

Klaus was looking at Jeremy strangely "Jeremy Gilbert, I presume?"

"Yeah"

"Klaus Mikaelson" he said, a tiny smile tugging at his lips.

Klaus picked up an apple from the bowl on the counter and tossed it in the air a couple of times before abruptly turning and throwing it full force at Jeremy. To her utter shock, Jeremy's hand shot up and caught the apple midair.

"Nice catch" Damon said, clearly as stunned as she was.

"Hey man! What the hell?" he said to Klaus and set the apple down.

"My apologies. That was rude but necessary. I think I know why you were sent to us"

"You do?" Elena asked, bewildered.

"He's a Hunter. A _true _Hunter. The kind that are born, not made. There are only five of them in existence at one time and most don't ever know what they are" he turned to Jeremy "I imagine this is all news to you?"

"Yeah, I have no idea what you're talking about"

"You're the last piece of our puzzle. The bit Bonnie and I have been trying to work out all day. The trouble is we have to wake you as a hunter which requires you to kill a vampire. And I'm guessing your cousin is not going to like that"

"No, I don't. He's not killing anyone" she said resolutely "We'll find another way"

Damon gave her a look and she narrowed her eyes at him defiantly. She was not going to sway on this. She'd promised to keep him safe and killing vampires was not what she, or her uncle, would call 'safe'. Jeremy seemed intent on his ravioli and said nothing.

"Let's not talk about killing" Bonnie said "I'm sure Jeremy still has questions and Klaus can tell us more about the Hunter thing"

"How do you know I'm a hunter?" Jeremy asked.

"The Hunter gene is passed down through the father and the last True Hunter I knew of was from the Gilbert bloodline. Hunters, once woken, are very adept at locating vampires and they are especially skilled at locating Original vampires. They were created to destroy us, you see. I imagine Sheila sent you to us because you are going to help us pin down the exact location of my sister"

"You got all that just from looking at me for two seconds?" Jeremy sounded skeptical.

"He's a thousand years old. Two seconds is plenty of time for him to size up pretty much anyone." Damon told him.

"A thousand years?" Jeremy asked wide eyed.

"Give or take a few years" Klaus said with a nod.

"Damn" Jeremy shook his head in wonder

"So what other 'super powers' do you have?" he directed the questions at Damon.

"The obvious ones; super hearing and speed you saw, strength, sight. Then there's the really fun stuff. We can compel people to do whatever we want and influence their thoughts. Our blood heals even fatal wounds so long as you're not already dead. And there's a thing I can do with the fog if I feel like scaring the shit out of someone before I kill them."

"I thought you didn't eat people" Jeremy said warily.

"I don't…anymore….well, not lately anyway"

Elena watched Jeremy gulp and take a deep sip of his drink. She shot Damon a warning glance and he shrugged unapologetically. She thought about what he'd said for a moment and realized he'd mentioned things she had no idea she could do.

"What did you mean by influence thoughts? How is that different than compulsion? And what about calling a fog? I've never heard you talk about that before" she asked him.

"You never asked" he told her "Influencing thoughts requires a mind that's open to manipulation but I can put images in your head. Make you see things that aren't there. Usually the person is either so terrified they can't think, they're asleep, or I catch them completely off guard. The fog is…honestly I'm not even sure I could do it now. I have to be in a particularly vindictive mood for it to work."

"I still don't really get the influencing. Can't you do that with compulsion?" she asked.

"Do you want me to show you?" he asked with an odd lopsided grin.

"Sure" she said and knew an instant later it was a mistake.

It only lasted for thirty seconds tops, but it was so real she felt her knees start to buckle. All of the sudden everyone disappeared and she was naked bent over the kitchen counter. Damon was behind her, inside her, driving into her fast and hard. He had a bruising grip on her hips and she was whimpering his name, begging him not to stop. Then it was over and she was fully clothed sitting in the kitchen with everyone else like she had been a half a minute before. She could feel the flush on her cheeks and she wasn't sure if she'd ever been so embarrassed in her life. 

"I…you…I can't believe you just….don't ever do that again!" she sputtered at him.

The look on his face was positively devilish and she could see he was fighting laughter.

"That's what you get for calling me ancient" he told her, still smiling salaciously at her.

"What just….?" Jeremy started to ask but Stefan put up his hand to stop him.

"Don't ask. Whatever he just did, you don't want to know. Trust me" he told him.

Elena finished her wine and held it out to Caroline for more.

**L**ater that night, after the girls had just enough wine to send them to their respective beds and Stefan begged off to write, Damon made sure he and Klaus ended up in the parlor with Jeremy. He poured three glasses of bourbon, handing one to Jeremy and one to Klaus.

"This has been a really weird day" Jeremy said and put down half the glass in one gulp "I don't know what I would have expected but you guys are not what I would have guessed vampires to be like"

"Will you be disappointed if I tell you we don't sleep in coffins?" Damon asked, trying to lighten his mood.

It worked.

"Relieved, actually" he said with a chuckle "Are any of the myths true?" he asked.

"Some. Crosses and garlic don't bother us. Sunlight is true unless you know the right witch. Which we obviously do. Stake to the heart is true" Damon told him.

"What exactly does it mean to be a Hunter?" Jeremy asked suddenly, like the question had been stewing in his mind since that afternoon.

Klaus gave him a long look before answering.

"Once you've woken as a Hunter, you'll find that you're quite a bit stronger and a great deal more agile than you are now. Even as you are now, you're probably stronger and faster than most of your peers, yes?" he asked and didn't wait for an answer "You aren't and won't be as strong as Damon or I but you'd be able to hold your own with a vampire. You can resist compulsion after you've killed more than one. You will also have a nearly irrepressible urge to kill vampires. That could pose a potential problem since you happen to be related to one. Though I'm certain I have a witch who could provide a potion that would help you control those impulses."

"It's also worth noting that you will officially be a supernatural creature. You'll bleed and grow old like a human but the afterlife for creatures like us is…different. I don't know what happens to normal people but when we die, we get stuck in an in-between kind of place. It's how Bonnie's Grams contacted you. She's dead but she's on what we call The Other Side." Damon told him, thinking it was only fair that he get the whole story.

"Is it weird that it all sounds kind of cool? I mean, I've had a pretty normal boring life until my dad showed up a few weeks ago and it's sort of scaring the shit out of me but it's…exciting, too."

Elena was going to be so unbelievably pissed at him. He knew the kid was going to do it. He just needed the right push. Killing someone, even if it's a vampire, wasn't something most 16 year old boys think about but he could see Jeremy considering it. There had to be some part of his nature as a Hunter that wanted to be woken, right? He was just helping him fulfill his destiny. _Yeah, Elena is going to kill you _his inner voice told him.

"So what do you think, Kid? We find you some piece of shit, scum of the earth, turn him, and you stake him. No harm no foul"

"I don't know. I've never killed anyone" he replied hesitantly.

"What do you think about people who hurt children?" Klaus asked him.

"Uh…they suck?" Jeremy said, clearly not understanding.

"What my friend is trying to say is, if you knew without a doubt that a person hurt little kids and didn't feel bad about it, would you kill them?"

"I would go to the police" Jeremy was looking at him like he was nuts and he supposed to a naïve 16 year old, he probably did seem a little nuts.

He tried for a patient smile "If that weren't an option. If it was them or the kid. Could you do it? Could you kill them?"

Jeremy stared into his drink and appeared to think for several long minutes. Christ, he hoped the kid was thinking. Otherwise he was just staring off into space and they were fucked.

"Yeah, I think I could do it. I could kill them" he said finally.

"And that's not just the bourbon talking?" Damon pushed.

He didn't want to go through all the trouble if Jeremy was going to chicken out when it came time to actually stake a vampire.

"No, it's not the bourbon" but he paused to take another sip "There was this girl at my old school, Anna. She was weird and people were mean to her. She was nice though and we were sort of friends. Once I found her cornered by this guy behind the school" another pause, another sip "he was grabbing at her and saying disgusting things. He was going to…hurt her. Anyway, I sort of beat him half to death. He was in the ICU for two weeks. They said if someone hadn't pulled me off him, I probably would have killed him. So yeah I think if I had to, I could kill someone if they really deserved it"

"Then we'll just have to find you someone who really deserves it" Damon said and tipped his glass toward the kid with a grim smile.


End file.
